


Game On!

by Violastar3



Category: Original Work, Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: Body Modification, Brainwashing, Gen, Mario Kart, Mario Kart References, Mind Manipulation, Mistaken Identity, Robots, Soul Switching, Video & Computer Games, adding tags as I figure out what I wrote in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:42:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 29,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24664813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violastar3/pseuds/Violastar3
Summary: Skyler is a game-addicted teen who's always going behind his mom's back to play video games. His mom gets fed up with his gaming and cuts the power to his room. Of course he has his hand-held system, and plays anyway. But when he downloads a new game, he'll find that it will suck up more of his life than he ever could have imagined.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Male Character
Kudos: 3





	1. Create Your Avatar!

"High score!" My voice rang out. "Eat that Bowser! You just got taken out by the Skyster!"

My friend James was jumping up and down. "Skyler, you did it! Oh, wait, the witch is coming back. What the- whoa!" James tripped and fell over. He bounced up immediately, so as not to miss any of the action. "Holy cow! Do you see how big he is? Aw man, you're screwed!"

"Stop distracting me. I've got to get this right." I deftly maneuvered Mario around the boss level, never doubting in myself, confident in my skills. I’d gotten him all the way from world one to world eight in the course of two weeks. So, today, I was prepared to defeat Bowser, and was in the last section, having defeated Bowser the first time moments earlier. But now, he was back, and ginormous. I popped the mystery box and quickly grabbed the helicopter power. We both cheered.

"You're gonna make it, you're gonna make it! Look there's Princess Peach!

Our jubilations were cut off by a voice from downstairs. "Skyler! Your mom is here to pick you up!"

James called down, "Mom! Don't distract him! He's beating the boss level for me on Mario Brothers!" He quickly turned to see how I was doing. James's mother came upstairs and peeked in.

"Skyler, your mother is in a hurry." I glanced at her for the briefest moment, looked back and saw that my momentary distraction made me miss the platform to defeat Bowser. James and I groaned. 

“Mom, you made him lose the level!” James pouted. “Way to go. Now we have to restart the whole thing!”

James’ mother folded her arms. ‘Skyler can come back another time.”

I stood up and waved good bye to James. “Sorry I didn’t get that for you.”

“It’s okay. See you at school!” He still was upset, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.

“See you!” I ran out the front door and into my waiting mother’s car. She gave me a frown.

“I told you to meet me out here at 5:00. What time is it now?”

I sighed. “5:15,” I said, pouting.

“Exactly! Now we’re going to be late, and dinner will be burned, and-” she sighed, exasperated. “What game was it this time?”

I didn’t look her way. “Mario Brothers.”

“Which one?”

“New Super Mario Brothers Wii.”

“Just Wii? Not Wii U?”

“Yup. Just Wii.”

Mom sighed again. “You and all your video games. You spend way too much time on them. You’re not making friends.”

“I am too making friends.”

“Other than other gamers online?” She gave me a look.

“Yes, actually. Real friends. In person.”

“Oh, really? And what do you do when you’re at their houses? Play football? Basketball? Baseball? No! You play their video games for them.” Her tone shifted to one with anger. I still sat silent looking out the window at the neighborhood.

“If you let me ride my bike to my friends’ houses, then you wouldn’t be late for dinner.”  
Mom sighed. “Today is a good example of why we can’t do that. You’re in another world when you play. You lose track of time, and don’t manage it well. You wouldn’t come home until late at night or be off in la la land and get hit by a car, or kidnapped, or who knows what else.”

She pulled into the driveway. After sitting for a moment, Mom said, “I’m calling an unplug.”

“What?!” my mouth dropped. “You can’t do that!”

“Oh, yes I can. No video games, no computer, no friends, no nothing for a week.” His mouth sat open. “Starting tomorrow.”

I shut my mouth and got out of the car. After slamming the door, I stomped inside. I ran up to my room, calling, “You’re the worst mom ever!” before shutting my bedroom door with intense ferocity. I flopped down on the bed.

Laying on my back, I glanced around my room. It wasn’t shabby decoration having been done all by my 13-year-old self. I had posters of all my favorite games, including Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Zelda, Halo, World of Warcraft, Pac Man, Lego Anything (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Batman, etc.) and all the greats. All these posters came with the games I’d gotten from lawn mowing money I’ve earned over the past several years.

In the corner sat my true prize. A flat screen that had “died” and then fixed itself after my parents replaced it with a new one. Surrounding it were every available game console. Wii, GameCube, PlayStation, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, etc.

I had also gone to great lengths to get an internet connection in my room. What was a video gamer without access to the internet and his online friends? They had helped me in the past, but now I gave them advice. Instead of money, they paid for their info by letting me borrow their games.

Today, I grabbed my universal controller and pulled up my main screen. Feeling out of it, I didn’t choose to play a game. The tension between Mom and I was too great, and it killed my gaming vibe for the day.

I opened up the internet. Scrolling around, I noticed something odd for a game. It was free but said you could design your own character and compete in any kind of event. Seeing no reason not to, I selected it. It downloaded easily to my home screen.

I started the game. It was simple enough.

**Create new Character.**

“Okay.” I selected it.

**Male or female?**

“Male.”

**Birthday.**

“Hmm…” an interesting query, but I was okay with it. “November 18, 2000.”

**Physical Characteristics.**

An infinite display of options popped up on my screen. I whistled. After a bit of digging, I found the right ones I wanted. For this character, I wanted it to look as close to myself in reality as possible. The selections started adding up. A person soon started to form. The unruly blonde hair, the bright green eyes. The mischievous grin, and my unfortunately rounded ears. (The pointed variety were my favorite parts of Legolas and Link.)

I whistled again. This was almost an exact copy of myself. Nothing I’d created on any other game matched this closely to reality. I pushed next. Another field.

**Enhanced ability.**

That one made me pause. This was another unusual entry. I opened the scroll down list for some ideas. The possibilities were endless. The list had billions of ideas. I could pick anything from flying to laser vision to strength to acrobatics to cooking to video games (that one piqued my interest, but I figured I was already playing on, so that would be of no use to me,) and a million other things. The one that grabbed my eye the most was the Robot Specialist. I rolled my cursor over the option and a window popped up showing the details of that enhanced ability.

It read, “Involves design, engineering, beta testing and fighting robots.” Seemed pretty cool. But before choosing, I scanned my options again. It seemed to be that whatever enhanced ability I chose would determine how the rest of the game would pan out. I returned to the robot specialist. Just as I was about to select it, mom came in.

“Skyler, it’s time for dinner.” Her tone was firm.

“Hang on one second.” I went to select it again.

“No, dinner is now. I’ve been calling for the last five minutes.”

“Fine.” I set down my controller, rolled off my bed and followed mom down to dinner.

Dinner was good, but I was still bummed that I had been interrupted. A large bowl of spaghetti sat in the middle of the table, and a plate of slightly burned garlic bread sat on the corner. I sat across from my six-year-old sister Sophie. I dismally tossed my noodles from one side of my plate to the other, still thinking of my argument from earlier with his mother.

“Have a good day at work, honey?” Mom politely asked dad. He worked at an insurance office in downtown Atlanta. Not even glancing above the newspaper he was reading, he gave her a confirming grunt, accompanied by a nod. Dad didn’t say much, but when he wanted to get to the point across, it was clear, concise, and to the point.

“How was your day, Sophie? Mom kept her tone cheerful

“It was great!” And that set Sophie off for a good ten minutes about her friends, and their dolls, and the not-so-nice girls and their dolls, and how they were so mean, and the boys with the cooties and other six-year old babble.

I didn’t say a word during the course of the meal. When everyone was more or less finished, I cleared my place and headed straight past mom up to my room. I flipped off the lights, jumped in bed and grabbed the controller. Toggling the joystick, I found the same screen up showing the list of Enhanced Abilities. Carefully, I rolled the cursor over Robot Specialist. My thumb hovered over the A button for several seconds. Almost in slow motion, my finger went slowly down, finally pushing it all the way down. I waited a moment in silence. Then…

“Ouch!” It felt halfway between a shock and a bite, but whatever it was hurt. A lot. I tried jerking his hand away from the controller, but it had a firm hold on my thumb. I looked down. The controller had grabbed my thumb, a small claw coming out of the joystick and pressing it into a small needle. Try as I might, I could not disconnect it.

Pretty soon, I started feeling a little light headed. It was sucking some of my blood! All I could see were stars. I lay back and passed out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this back in 2014 for NaNoWriMo, and I feel proud in saying that it's the one thing I've actually finished writing that's all my own. I'll be posting chapters as I see fit... so that might be a bunch at once, idk. Enjoy!


	2. Welcome!

When I came to, it wasn’t in my bed. I glanced around. This room was all white with no furniture. I lay in the center on a raised platform in a white jumpsuit. There was no one in sight.

“Hello?” My voice echoed a bit and I felt strange. Sitting up, I noticed my hand. I held it up to my face. It sure looked like my hand, but it looked shinier, somehow. And kind of pixelated.

“What’s going on?” I stood to better inspect my surroundings. Behind me was a large wall of static. Curious, I stepped closer. Peeking through, I saw a bedroom. My bedroom. A foot poked over one corner of the bed.

“Welcome Skyler.” I spun around. A lady stood behind me dressed all in silver. Her hair, clothes, and even her eyes were silver. She spoke with a soft voice, but it contained quite a lot of power.

“Who are you? How did I get here? What’s going on?” The questions seemed to flood faster and faster until I realized I was scared.

“I am the Guardian of the fair Simland. You are here because you created a profile with our database, and here you are.” Her words were gentle, and calm, but held great power.

“So, what was with the whole controller biting my thumb thing?”

“That’s how you sign your contract with us. You give us some blood, and we help you start another life.”

“I’m stuck here?” I started hyperventilating. I would never get to fix things between me and mom.

“Sort of.” My breathing slowed. _Good. Wait, what?_

“This game is set for 12 hours of play, but you can shorten or lengthen that. Then, it returns you to your body, in your world. Here, your consciousness is inhabiting this form. There, it inhabits your body. This game helps you switch back and forth between the two. You can stay for longer if you desire.”

“Sweet! So, could I stay forever?”

“No, that’s extremely dangerous!” She became suddenly very serious. “If you stay for longer than the recommended allotment of 12 hours, more and more of you will disappear there and more living tissue will remain here.”

“What do you mean?” I was confused.

“With each session, the game takes a small amount of blood to allow you to play. If you linger, it will need more fuel and will start feeding off of you. It will replace your flesh with pixelation.”

I got worried. “That doesn’t sound good. Can’t I back out now? I don’t want to play this anymore.”

“Oh, but you can’t.” The guardian walked over to where I stood. “Now that you've entwined yourself here, if you don’t check in every so often, oh, once a week or so, your avatar here begins to die. Face it. You’ve become part of this world. If you don’t eat, sleep, play with this character, you will both die.”

“Oh…” This was a lot to take in. I turned it over in my mind. After careful consideration, I figured I could handle it. I asked, “So now that I’m here, what do I do?”

The guardian smiled. “Live, of course.” She gave me a glittery smile. It was kind of creepy.

“What do I do now?”

She waved her hand towards a door that wasn’t there a moment ago. “Follow the green line. It will take you to a new arrivals specialist.” A line sprang to life on the ground. “Off you go.”

My feet were suddenly moving. I turned my head back around to ask one last thing. 

“How do I get out?” But she was gone, and a whole new world lay ahead.

\-----

Skyler’s mom came in later that evening to apologize after their argument Softly, she knocked on the doors. When she didn’t hear anything, she opened the door and peaked her head in. Skyler lay asleep on his bed with one of his controllers in hand. She walked over and sat on his bed.

“Skyler, I’m so sorry about today. I shouldn't have gotten so mad. I’d just been having a hard day, that’s all. Please don’t stay mad at me.” She took his hand in hers and rubbed it. “Good night.” Leaning over, she gave him a motherly kiss on the head. It gave her the tinsiest of shocks, but she didn’t pay it any mind. She stood up, grabbed a blanket, then tucked him in. An attempt was made to remove the controller form Skyler’s hand. When it wouldn’t release, she figured he was gripping it in his sleep, and dismissed it. The, quietly, she left his room, carefully closing the door.

\-----

Looking around me, I saw I was in a small, brightly colored town. Shops ran up and down the street and a tall mountain could be seen in the distance. The people were quite strange. Some had pointy hats, ears, or noses. Others had on fashionable clothing, others wore spandex, and yet others didn’t even look like people. Some were tall, others short, others made of gummy bears. I realized this place was just like earth, but I could do much more here than I could there.

Once or twice, I bumped into people by accident. I’d apologize and some would answer, and some wouldn’t. _How weird._

A lot of people were looking at me in my white jumpsuit and giving me strange looks. 

“Excuse me?” I asked a shopkeeper. “Where am I?” She gave me a quizzical look.

“Didn’t the Guardian tell you? You’re in Simland.” She muttered something under her breath as I walked away. 

Now I was thoroughly confused. What was happening? What was I going to do when I got home? I couldn’t abandon either life now that I was here.

In the midst of the confusion, a man approached me.

“Hello Skyler!” He wore a bright neon green and pink striped vest and had blue eyes that glistened like sapphires. A jolly disposition clung to him.

“Uh, Hi?”

“I’m guessing you’re new around here?” he gestured at my white suit.

“Yeah. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Sure! Follow me!” They set off down through the town. “The name’s Jack. I’m with the New Arrivals Department. We’re in charge of getting you settled here in Simland and figuring out how to live two lives.” Jack led me around, almost like a tour guide.

“If you’ll just come with me into my office.” We’d reached a small building with a large sign clearly displaying “New Arrivals Here!” We walked in and sat on either side of a desk.

“You’re scared, confused, and a little overwhelmed, right?

“Sort of-” I started, but was quickly cut off.

“Well, you’re in the right place.” the spiel was pre-rehearsed. “It’s okay, everything will be taken care of. What was your chosen enhanced ability?”

“Robot Specialist.”

“Okay, let me see. Ah, yes. Robot Specialists go to Tokyo, Japan. If you’d chosen something else, like, fighting dragons, I would send you to Middle Earth. Superpowers? Gotham City. You catch my drift?”

“Oh, okay. The enhanced abilities determine where your game goes.” This made sense.

“Exactly! Now, before I send you off, we’ve got to update your wardrobe.” He _tsked_ distastefully at my jumpsuit. “You can’t go out looking like a new arrival!”

I looked down at the white suit, embarrassed. Apparently, this was what New Arrivals wore.

“Follow me. I’ll get you suited up.” Standing, we went into a back room. There wasn’t really anything there except a hollow compartment with two footprints on the floor.

“Stand on the footprints, and we’ll measure you, then get you ready.” I walked in, got in position, and waited. Suddenly, a glass door slid across where I’d walked in. A laser scanned quickly ran up and down my whole length. Then, something was tickling my feet. Glancing down, I saw that bit by bit, my white suit was being replaced by another suit, this one a sleek black with curvy red stripes up the sides. I looked out at Jack. He mouthed, “3-D printing.” Of course. The machine was being fed by my white suit, and it was “printing” out the other one around me. Pretty cool. The tickling sensation reached my hips, and lingered there for a while. When I looked down, I saw that the printer was making a really cool utility belt, without any tools, but still neat nonetheless.

 _Almost like Batman…_ I thought. The printing kept going up my torso, shoulders, and over my head. Finally, it stopped. The glass door slid open and I stepped out, decked in my new outfit.

“So, what do you think?”

Jack smiled. “It ‘suits’ you! This process is so much easier than keeping every suit type in stock here. Ugh, what a mess. And sizing, don’t even get me started. This has been faster ever since we added all the new options.”

I clapped my hands together, trying to get to the point.“So how do I get to Japan?”

Jack motioned me back into the office. We sat down, and he pulled out a map. “The first thing you’re gonna do is get out of Simifornia and the United States of Simmerica and fly across the Pasimfic Ocean, until you reach Japan, part of Sim-Asia.”

“Wait. Fly? How am I going to do that?” This place made no sense.

“Like this.” Jack slid open a secret panel on his desk with a small preset computer navigator and a large red button. “Bye Skyler!” He hit the button.

“Wait!” But the words got stuck on the way up. The ceiling opened and I was launched out of the New Arrivals building, out of Simifornia, the United States of Simmerica and over the Pasimfic Ocean. It all happened so fast, I almost wasn’t aware that I was in a game at all. It felt like I was looking at the world go by from the TV in my room at home. I turned my head to see if I could see my room but too much static was in the way. Feeling a little sad, I flew on.

It came to feel like I was falling instead of flying. Pretty soon, I realized that I didn’t know how I was going to land. _I’ll probably end up on the side of a building flatter than paper._ Another thought came to mind. _What if they don’t speak English?_ I wasn’t sure which one worried me more.

I came through the clouds and saw Japan nearing closer. Tokyo looked so small from where I flew. But it got bigger. The taller buildings loomed closer and closer. My fear of going SPLAT! was close to becoming reality. In the distance, I saw a large white thing. I stared at it in curiosity until I realized it was a giant bed. A large picture was painted on the pillow of a person spread-eagled.

 _What the? Oh!_ I reacted quickly enough to change my position mid flight from headfirst to match the picture. With a thud, I whammed into the pillow, knocking the breath out of me. Slowly, I seemed to peel off of the pillow and land with back on the bed.

“Are you okay?” A voice floated to me from one side of the big bed. A girl’s head popped up.

“Uh, yeah?” I rolled off the bed towards where I had seen her. As I got off, I noticed her lower legs were gone, and she walked with power risers on as prosthetics. “What happened?”

She looked down and smiled. “That was an accident from the races. Ah, fun times. Anyways, I’m Akemi, your greeter!”

“Cool. How are you speaking English?”

“I”m not. Everyone on Sim Earth has an adapter that sets the language you hear. I have mine set to Japanese and you’re set to English. I’m talking to you in Japanese, but you’re hearing English. You’re speaking to me in English, and I hear Japanese. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah, wow. There’s so much to learn. Where do I start?”

Akemi smiled. “Follow me.”

\-----

Jack from New Arrivals sat nervously awaiting a phone call. This was the part he always hated. He could get them in his store, dressed, and out into the world, but he couldn’t handle getting the call from the boss. Even though it ended in a pay check.

When the phone rang, he jumped. He took a deep breath, and answered it.

“How did it-a go with the newest arrival?” He hadn’t actually met the boss, but didn’t ever want to.

“It went well.” He kept his answers short.’

“Did he seem like-a a good candidate?” The boss’s voice was a tenor but full of darkness and hatred. And seemed… I _talian?_

“Y-y-yes, sir.”

“Can we get-a him addicted? Will he spend more-a time-a here than there?”

“I think so.”

“See-a to it that he does. I have no-a more-a tolerance for failure. This has-a to work.”

“I’ll make sure.”

“Good.” The other line went dead. Jack let out a shaky breath and hung up the phone. It was done. He sighed deeply, then made another call.

“Hello?”

  
“Hello. I need to hack a player’s profile.”

“Name of player?”

“Skyler, recently started, Robot Specialist.”

“Good. I’ll have that done.”

“Excellent.” Then he hung up the way his boss did and smiled smugly. The middle of the food chain was always tough, with people over you yelling at you. But it was worth it to still be over people and yell at them too.


	3. What do I do?

Akemi led me down from the rooftop, inside the building I landed on, and down to the lobby. We then took a taxi to an even bigger building. I couldn’t help but stare out at my new surroundings. The streets were full of odd people, more odd than in the first town I landed in. They had strange colored hair, skin, clothing, had weird parcels, and were just eccentric in general. We exited the taxi and went inside.

I gasped as we walked into the lobby. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, shag carpeting checkerboard patterned across the floor with white granite floors. Although the coloring was gray, white and black, spots of color here and there were hyper accentuated. Everything looked expensive, and too real.

Akemi walked over to the elevator. “You coming?” She gave me a quizzical look.

“Yeah.” I was still admiring the lobby. We walked in and the elevator, and I was still looking around. The doors shut in front of me and snapped me out of my stupor.

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” An awkward moment sat between us. Akemi spoke up first.

“I would take the stairs, but I just got these and don’t want to wear them out too quickly.”

“I see…” The silence soon became unbearable.

“If you thought the lobby was impressive, you should see your office.”

“My office?” I wondered how an office could be cooler than a lobby. The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and I understood.

“Do you like it?” Akemi asked.

I stood with his mouth open. The office was amazing. I had the entire floor to myself, and it was the size of two basketball courts put together. A large corner was devoted to a drawing and design center. Another for a large workbench covered in tools. Turning, I saw a private room labeled “Bedroom.” One corner had loads of cables and a screen, and a virtual reality headset. And, to top it all off, everything was brightly colored.

“What do you think?”

I grinned. “I love it! This place is awesome!”

“Good. You have the whole floor all to yourself. If you need me, I’m already in your list of contacts. Let me know if you want to duke it out with a robot, or go to the races. Bye!” She bowed, and returned to the elevator.

“Wow. All this? To myself? I walked around in amazement “This is so neat. I think I’ve found a good reason to keep playing. So, what all am I supposed to do here again?”

I spun to find her gone. I shrugged, and wanted to start investigating everything, right away. A wave of sleepiness washed over me. Yawning, I walked towards the bedroom. “I guess that’s my 12 hours of normal time.”

I didn’t get to fully enjoy the bedroom, I was so tired. I lay down on the bed, closed my eyes, and expected to go to sleep. Instead, a pop-up window appeared. I opened and closed my eyes. It stayed. A video began to play. The Guardian stood in the room I’d first awoken in.

“Congratulations, Skyler. You’ve completed your first day here in Simland. At this time, you have the choice to either sign out and put this avatar to sleep, or keep playing a little longer.”

I was so tired, I didn’t want to keep playing. Reaching a finger out, I selected the sign out option. Almost instantly, my eyes closed, and I felt myself falling backwards through the bed, down into darkness.

\-----

Slowly, but surely, the light finally came back. I was in my own body, in my own room, and everything was right. I sighed. I felt rather drained, and just wanted to sleep.

But in trying to go back to sleep, I felt like I was pushing it, like when you purposefully try to sleep in, when you’re awake. I shut my eyes, trying to sleep, when mom came in and turned on the lights.

“Skyler! Get up! It’s 7:00. You have school in an hour, and the bus comes in ten minutes! You’ll be late!”

I begrudgingly sat up, got out of bed, and began to get dressed. Try as I might to hurry, I couldn't help but mull over the events of the night. Mom kept hounding me to finish my breakfast. The first moment I really had to think was on the bus. I stared out the window as images of my flight and the 3-D printer and my office flew by. I almost couldn’t believe it was real.

“Hey man! How are you!” My train of thought was derailed by James giving me a good slap on the back.

“Doing well, how ‘bout you?”

“Good. When are you good to come back over to my house and finish Mario Bros. for me? ‘Cause that was awesome yesterday, you defeating two worlds for me!” James babbled on.

_Yesterday? Was it only yesterday that I did that? I guess time is slower when you actually use all 24 hours._

“Earth to Skyler. Hello? You okay?” I realized James had asked me a question, and was waiting for a reply.

“Yeah, fine. Just thinking about this game I just got off the internet. It’s called Simland. It’s fun, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“What? Too graphic?”

“No, just extremely personal, and really lifelike. Not really meant to be watched.” _More meant to be lived, if you ask me._

“Oh, okay.” Awkward silence. “See you later!” James took off for his seat. I felt bad that I was blowing my friend off, but there was too much going on, and James would never understand.

I left the bus a little downhearted. It kept my mind wandering all throughout the day. My english teacher asked me to define something or other for her, and I was doodling some of the things I saw last night in my notebook. She came over when I didn’t reply, and took my notebook to her desk. The other teachers kept reprimanding me for daydreaming, and at lunch, my friends started leaving me out of conversations, because I wasn’t talking with them. I was being antisocial, but it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t help it, there were so many more interesting things happening in my mind than in real life. 

At the end of the day I returned home and sat on the swing in the backyard, absentmindedly kicking back and forth. Mom came out to check on me.

“Are you okay, Skyler? Do you feel well? Do you have a temperature? “ She put her hand on my shoulder, genuinely concerned.

“Nah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am.” It came out harsher than I expected.

Mom took a deep breath before saying, “I know it’s hard not being able to play your video games or see your friends, but you’re going to have to face it. Your video games aren’t the best way to spend your time. You’ll grow up and look back and say you should have done more in your childhood other than play games.”

 _Except when one becomes another part of your life. Tell me what to do then._ I sighed.

“The video game thing isn’t a problem, mom, really. It’s good for me actually, it’s giving me time to think through some things.”

“Good. Just let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”

“Okay mom.” She turned and walked inside.


	4. A New Friend

That night, I got ready for bed, as usual, giving mom a hug and going upstairs. I climbed into bed, turned out the lights, and switched the TV on. Muting it, I selected the same game as yesterday.

Today, the option **Create New Character** was gone. In it’s place was a new option.

**Load Game**

Having no other option, I selected it.

**One saved game. 5%. Select saved game?**

I pushed A.

The bite didn’t hurt as much this time, though it did catch me off guard. With the little time I knew I had, I made myself look as asleep as I normally did before the darkness came again.

I awoke in my bedroom in Simland, feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Sitting up, I finally got to fully appreciate my bedroom. It was quite large and spacious, red and blue striped, and full of gadgets and gizmos for pleasurable use. Everywhere I looked, there was something new. Computers, games, toys, even a simulator for a roller coaster. “And I thought my room was cool… this is incredible…”

 **I hope you like it.** A woman’s voice spoke.

I looked around. No one was there.

“Hello?”

 **Sorry if I scared you. I’m your secretary/office aide/TV/Radio/assistant/Security system. My name is Sarah.** Her voice seemed to ring out everywhere, but seemingly only in my head.

“Hi?” I was still confused. “Why can I only hear you in my head?”

**With your most recent sign in, I took a small portion of your blood and created my persona. I know the ins and outs of your personality. That’s how I modeled your room to be more than exactly the way you dreamed it would be. And, we have a blood connection, so only you and I can converse.**

“Can you help me make things? Like, something that can focus, um, you a little more?”

**What do you mean?**

“I mean, like, make something to put you in? Just part of you? Because this in-my-head-yet-all-around-me thing is throwing my off.”

**Oh, well then, if that will be simpler for you, I’ll help you do it.**

“Thank you Sarah.” I got out of bed and went to the closet. Upon opening it, I saw that it was stockpiled with an innumerable amount of clothes. A good portion was made up of official Robot Specialist suits I was wearing, but there were also traditional Japanese garbs, and a hazmat suit or two (you never know when you’ll need one.)

The closer I looked, I realized that all my regular clothes from Earth were in here as well.

“When do I wear what, Sarah?” Once again, I was on overload.

**The official suits are for occasions when you want to be recognized as a Robot Specialist, like for Brawls, or Races. The rest is just whenever you feel like it.**

“So, if I felt like wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, no one would care?”

**Not really. Unless you plan on meeting someone.**

“Cool.” I grabbed my favorite pair of jeans and t-shirt and changed in the bathroom. When I came back out, I asked, “Looks good?” Almost instantly, applause sounded in my head. “Thanks.”

**Any time.**

I walked back out to the main room. It was exactly as I left it last night, with the exception of the full service kitchen I didn’t notice behind the elevator shaft. It was working on it’s own.

**I’m prepping you some breakfast for you. Hope you’re hungry.**

I realized I was really, really hungry. _I hope this gets better with time._ Glancing at what she’d made for me, I switched directions and took a stool at the counter. A plate stacked high with pancakes drowned in maple syrup surrounded by eggs scrambled with herbs and a glass of Orange juice was soon inhaled.

“Wow,” I said between mouthfuls. ‘This is amazing. Thank you Sarah.”

**You’re welcome.**

After I wiped the last bite of egg from my mouth, I headed over to the blueprints area. _So much to do, so little time to do it._ I thought to myself.

**I know, tell me about it.**

_Wait, you can hear my thoughts?_

**Um, yeah? I’m pretty sure that’s what I do.**

_Oh, okay. Note to self: Find and fix your security settings._

**Note taken.**

_Ok._

I set to work drawing, erasing, fixing, throwing away plans for Sarah. Every so often, she would make suggestions and help me with my work. Finally, I finished. Sarah told me there was a scanner in the beta testing area that allowed me to model my design and interact with it.

“Sweet. Let’s try this out.” I inserted the blueprint design and watched the model come to life on the screen.

 **It’s wonderful!** Sarah said with a squeal. **Let me try!** Suddenly, the model was moving, flying around the screen. I smiled, then let out a laugh.

“This is so amazing! I can’t believe I created this!”

**That’s part of what makes you a Robot Specialist. You have a gift for animating electronic life.**

“Wow… Well, let’s get you built. This won’t do us much good if you’re stuck on the screen.”

So, I headed to the workbench. As I sat down to work, I was worried that I wouldn’t know what to do. But then I got started, and it all seemed to “come back” to me. As if the knowledge of this work was already within me., I just had to open the gate.

Bits and pieces soon formed into a magnificent robot. I screwed, and cut, and wired, and soldered, and got burned, and had to get a bandage, and put together the robot I’d designed. Finally, I finished.

Sitting back, I asked, “So Sarah, what do you think? Does it look like a worthy host?”

 **Hmm…** A sound clip played in my mind. It sounded like footsteps. She was inspecting it. **Why the wings and the gravity rings?  
**

I smiled. “The wings are mostly for decoration, but do help a lot with steering and control. The rings propel you upwards and forwards. Besides, it looked uneven without the wings.”

**I have no hands to grab anything with.**

“That’s what this if for.” I’d already synced the robot’s controls to my brain, so I could control it. I made her fly, and then use her tractor beam to pick up a screw. “This can carry up to 250 pounds, and leaves no radioactive trace. You’ll get good enough eventually that you can fling objects other places. Like this.” I grabbed the screw again, while it was directly below me. I flew forwards a little, back, and forward releasing mid swing and then back again to follow through. It flew about five feet. “I’m not very good, granted, but I know you’ll get it. Ready?”

**Let’s do this.**

I slid open a small panel on it’s back, and after attaching it to a mini USB, connected it to the mainframe. (Sorry about that bit of arcane technology, but you do what you can.)

A zap and a fizzle later, the lights went out. I was worried Sarah hadn’t made it. Then, her red eyes flickered on, the gravity rings engaged, and she began to fly. The lights came back on for me to see her whizzing around the room. I laughed. Her tiny body, no bigger than a robin, was white with a set of dragonfly wings out the back. The main torso was rather curvy and had a large dot in the middle of the front. That was the tractor beam. Down below, where most things legs are, were her gravity rings. Three of them, glowing blue with energy to keep Sarah aloft.

“Like it?” she zoomed around again.

**Like it? I love it!!!! Sarah shrieked with joy.**

_Interesting…_ I thought. _I can still only hear her in my mind…_

A small red hand tugged on my shirt towards the blue prints. **Let’s build another! I want to help, like really help you build the next robot. Let’s do a racer! Let’s-**

“Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. How did you do that?”

 **What?** Sarah looked side to side, the back at me. **What did I do?  
**

“You formed your tractor beam into a hand, and grabbed my shirt. “

**I did?**

I nodded.

**Well… it seems I gained more than a personality when I did the blood connection to you. I must have gained some human traits too.**

“We’ll have to test these things out.” Feeling tired, I glanced down at my watch. My twelve hours were up. “I’m done. That was fun today.” I said with a yawn. “We’ll have to do that tomorrow too…” My words were getting slurred, and my vision blurry. Stumbling, I made my way to my room and collapsed on the bed. The same pop up window appeared and I signed out. “

“Good night Sarah. See you tomorrow…”

And I fell into darkness.

\-----

And so it went, Sarah and I designing, beta-testing, and creating robots over the next few weeks. We made lots of different types including fighting, racing, friend, spy, service, utility, working, all kinds. We got in trouble with some neighbors a couple of times. Once, an inappropriate noise making robot got loose in the air vents, and crawled above someone’s dining room. A very unhappy Japanese man came up through the elevator, holding the perpetrator, looking quite disgruntled. I found out later that it had interrupted a dinner where his son was trying to propose to his fiance whose father had just died. The robot made several unpleasant noises, and caused the poor girl to leave in tears. I felt, bad, but Sarah and I burst out laughing every time we thought about it.

I tried to live life regularly, so mom wouldn’t suspect anything unusual going on. Sure I did still space out sometimes, and other times, I would think to Sarah, and then forget she was in Simland. Those times made me sad and I felt quite alone.

My week of unplugging ended, but I just didn’t get back to playing my other games like I had before. I felt as if I had moved on.

I went over to James house a week or two after my unplugged week ended. Our conversation went something like this:

“Man, your heart’s really not into it today, is it?” James’ arms were crossed.

“Dude, I’m sorry. I just haven’t played this one in a while, okay?” Mario died again. James groaned.

“You go a week without playing, and now you’re worse than my sister? That just doesn’t make much sense.”

“I know. But I’ve been playing this other game.”

“What’s it called?” One of his brows lifted questioningly.

“Simland...” I tried to be nonchalant, but it had to come out anyways.

“Simland? Oh! Yeah, it’s that one you told me about. I think I looked it up. Couldn’t find it.”

“Weird...” Mario fell into the lava one more time. “How about we switch to another game? One that involves less dying?”

“Oh, okay. I need a cup or two unlocked on Mario Kart. How ‘bout it?”

“Sure.” James popped the disc in. The jingle played. I started the game by selecting my character and kart. My preference is Yoshi on the Classic Dragster. (I think it has great acceleration). Although I don’t remember choosing it, team race came up. On my team were me (Yoshi), Luigi, Bowser, Wario, Peach, and Baby Peach. The other team had Mario, Baby Mario, Koopa Troopa, Donkey Kong, Waluigi and Toad.

I began racing. It wasn’t hard, but I wasn’t used to the team version. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t the end of the world if Luigi passed me, we’re on the same team. But Mario, however, could not be allowed to even dare to do such a thing. (Could you tell I had a competitive spirit?) At one point in one race, Mario played a red mushroom and zoomed past me. I could have sworn he said, “Bye-bye!” My competitive spirit flared, my anger seethed, the little fiery guy in my head went, “Oh no you don’t!” and I sped up and passed him again. Without a mystery box.

 _How did I do that?_ Soon, I finished the race. I looked over. James stood with his mouth agape.

“What. The. Heck.”

“I don’t know how I did it. It just sort of happened.” I glanced down at my watch. “Whoops, looks like my mom will be here soon. Glad I could help you finish something.” I walked downstairs, knowing it was totally awkward. James didn’t follow. I called back up. “You coming?”

I heard his footsteps come slowly from his bedroom to the stairs. Thump. Thump. Thump. He was still astonished. His mother walked over.

“Hey, I was about to come get you from your game.” She looked up at James. “What’s up Honey?”

I shook my head. “Dunno. I think I just beat a level he had a really hard time doing himself. It’s okay, it happens all the time.” I peeked out the window. “My mom’s here. Thanks for having me over!” I walked to the front door.

“Bye Skyler!” James mother waved. James still wasn’t moving. “James, what’ up with you? Quit gaping at him, and wave goodbye!” He gave a halfhearted wave. He looked distracted, like he had other things on his mind. The door shut and I got in my mom’s car. She drove away.

“How was it today? Play outside?” She gave me a hopeful smile.

“Nope, we played Mario Kart. But we kept better track of the time. We’re making improvements little by little.”

“Good. Next time, I would like you to play outside. You’re not getting any sun.”

“Hey, I said we were improving, not perfect.” I held up my hands, in defense.

She smiled. Then, she went on about her day. I zoned out. _What was that thing I did with the kart? How had I made it go faster? Did this have something to do with Simland?_ All these questions raced through my mind. I had something to ask someone tonight.

\-----

James lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. He hadn’t spoken a word since Skyler left. His mother sent him to bed early that night. She thought he was sick. _More like sick with curiosity. And knowledge._ He couldn’t shake what he’d seen when Skyler zoomed past Mario. He’d surged with energy. A white, bright light had come over him, and James could have sworn that Skyler looked almost fuzzy. Like looking too closely at an image on an old TV, out of focus, and pixelated.

It wasn’t that Skyler had beaten a really hard level. It wasn’t that he’d zoomed past Mario without a power. It was that he’d exercised a power over the game, and made it bend to his will. It was scary. James didn’t know if he believed in magic, or in that sort of thing. But there was one thing he did know.

He had to find out what happened to Skyler in Simland.


	5. Off to the Races

After I logged on that night, I immediately called Akemi. Her face appeared as a hologram in front of me projected by Sarah.

“Akemi, it’s me, Skyler. I was wondering, could I ask you about-”

I was cut off by a squeal. “The races! You think you’re ready for them! Oh, I can hardly wait! You have a car, don’t you? You can’t race without a car!”

I fumbled. “Um, yeah, I have a car. But this-”

“Yes! Get your RS suit on and meet me at the garage by the main race course in an hour. Can’t miss it. See you! Bye!” She hung up.

I looked at Sarah. “Girls are confusing. And now I have to go to this race, and I’ll never get my questions answered, and Gah! What’ll I do?”

**Race of course. Just go down with your car and talk to her there. You try and back out of it, and if it doesn’t work, just race anyways. Then, you’ll actually get to talk face to face. It works much better.**

“Oh. Thanks.” I pulled on the Robot Specialist suit, grabbed a quick breakfast (made by the working bots Sarah and I made) and stuck the car fob in my pocket.

I’d asked Sarah about the races some time ago. She’d explained that everyone gets in a blank car, inserts their fob and races. The fob contained the schematics of the car you designed. Racers created their own fobs before hand. So, we worked together and created a totally tricked out car that would win any race for sure.

I caught a taxi to the main raceway with Sarah in tow, and we made it with only a few minutes to spare.

“What took you so long?” Akemi shifted her weight from one power riser to the other, her arms crossed.

“Traffic was awful. And, I had to debate about whether or not I actually wanted to do this.” I walked up to her. “Look, I don’t know that I want to race. I really just had some questions.”

She held her hand up, halting me before I said anything stupid. She waited a moment before saying, “Thanks for coming anyways. This means a lot to me.” She smiled. “Got your fob?”

I held it up. “Yup.”

Akemi grinned. “Let’s drive.”

\-----

We entered the garage. “Whoa.” Akemi smiled.

“It’s amazing, huh?” I nodded. “It’s supposed to be amazing. What sort of inter-gaming racing course would it be if it wasn’t?”

“Wait. Inter-gaming? What’s that?” _Ah! New vocab. Mental note_.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot you were new around here. All the video games that ever have been connect near here, in a big station. Any characters that are retired or on leave can come race here. It’s amazing. And, any time a new game is connected, the characters who leave talk to the guardian, who sends them to New Arrivals. If they want to take a break from being their characters, they can make an avatar here and have a totally new life, free from their other game, and travel freely between the two worlds.”

“Interesting.” _Sarah, make note of this conversation._

**On it.**

“Our supreme emperor used his great power and the internet to connect the worlds, and create peace and prosperity throughout them. There were a few games that had been previously connected, but they were always at war. But together, we forged something bigger than all of us. Simland.”

“So, who is the Supreme Emperor?”

“No one really knows for certain who he is. But even with his voice scrambler to “protect his identity” and “keep Simland safe”, he does have an accent.”

“Okay… cool.”

Akemi glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “You didn’t hear it from me, but I think it’s someone from Mario World.”

We passed through a large spacious room filled with people. They all looked different. _Just like when I entered Simland._ There were many that I recognized. I saw Link with a robot Epona, Kirby with the warp star, Lego General Grievous with some lego racing ship (I could never remember their names), a Halo spartan with a Phantom, Captain falcon with the Blue Falcon, Nate, (He had a name tag. I didn’t recognize his video game), Tron with a light bike, a whole bunch of Excitebikes, Samus, and I even saw a Toad.

“Hey, Akemi, look! A Toad!” I received a panicked look from her. With one hand, she grabbed my left arm, and with the other, she yanked my head lower.

“Be quiet! Do you want him to pay attention to us?” Her voice was tight.

“What are you talking about? Toads are just the nice, squishy guys from Mario World.”

“They are the eyes and ears of the supreme emperor. If they see or hear anything interesting or suspicious, they report it. They will tail anyone they get information from. Anyone they haul away is never seen again. Don’t be noticed, okay?”

I stared at her, a little weirded out. “Says the girl with power risers for legs.” After she glared at me, I said, “Just kidding. Yeah. Got it. Don’t be noticed.”

She released me. “Okay. Follow me. The counter’s this way."

We walked over to a tall counter. A clean, well rounded cyborg sat behind it.

“How can I help you today, Akemi?” His voice was warm, and friendly. A metal arm was attached on his left shoulder, and from the sound of it, a metal leg dragged on the floor.

“Just entering a race, Nicholas. Me and my friend Skyler.” The cyborg turned to me.

“A new racer? Good. We’ve been needing someone new to cheer for. Got a car?”

“Yeah.” I pulled out my fob.

“Great. I’ll get you entered in a second.”

We stepped back. I gave Akemi a confused look. She smiled.

“Nicholas and I go way back. He was in a racing accident years ago, soon after the races began. Cyborgs were the thing back then. He volunteered to be my coach when I started, and told me who to call when I got in my accident. Fortunately, things have changed since his time.”

“So why’s he out here?”

“All the coaches switch off doing counters when their racers aren’t racing. It’s just the way it goes.”  


Nicholas waved us back. He handed us each a ticket. “That’s for you to get onto the track. Good luck you two! Don’t die, it’s not nice!” We started for the trackway. I turned and waved at him, shaking my head.

“Don’t mind him, he’s always says things like that.” I smiled. _That sounds like something one of my friends tells me all the time…_ I got in a line behind Akemi. Other racers were lined up in front of us, each placing his ticket in a slot where it disappeared. Akemi put hers in, then turned to me.

“It’s nothing personal, just we’re not on a team or anything. So, if I beat the heck out of you, I don’t really mean it. I’m just trying to win.”

“Okay.” I understood. I had a VERY competitive spirit. “If I don’t beat you first.”

She smiled. “Good luck.”

“You too.” She walked through the door. I stepped in after her. What I saw blew my mind.

“What. The. Heck.” I felt like James must have. I was standing on the starting line of Mario Circuit, exactly how it appeared on the game. The Toads, Delfinos and Shy Guys were going crazy in the stadium seats. “No way.”

“Yes way. Now, come one! The game’s going to start in two minutes!” Akemi walked up to a blank car. It looked just like what it sounded like. A white, ordinary, nondescript, blank car. I hopped in an empty one. It looked for all the world like a regular car. I stuck my fob in the ignition. As I turned it, the wheel came off in my hand, my seat changed into a recliner, and my car transformed around me. I could easily see what parts had been changed from the original because my car was extremely colorful. The exterior was a bright red, with flashy silver rims. My seat could be considered uncomfortable, but wasn’t. It was cross between a Banana chair and a bean bag. So you have the stability and support from a banana chair, and the soft wiggliness of a bean bag. The wheel finished changing into a Wii remote. Because I hadn’t actually driven a real car yet, I was going to win this the only way I knew how to. By treating it like the video game that it was.

A Koopa Troopa flew out on a cloud in front of the cars. The speakers in my car were overridden, and a tinny voice sounded.

“Drivers! Welcome to Mario Circuit! In this race, we ask that there be no profanity, no killing, and no rule objections. Any road rage, crashing, bashing, scraping, and tailgating is encouraged. On your mark,” He pulled a traffic light out of nowhere. The red light was on. “Get set,” It switched to yellow. I revved my remote. It seemed like an eternity.

Almost in slow motion, the light changed to green, and Koopa Troopa said, “GO!” My thumb slammed down on the 2 button, my tires squealed, and I was off. My view was slightly skewed, seeing as it was from inside the car, rather than from behind. But, I still zoomed ahead.

I cruised along the road, passing people left and right. There were about 20 of us out on the track, and everyone’s vehicles were different. Of course, some people had multiple fobs so as to select one that fit the theme of the course. Some just rode their normal vehicles, looking totally out of place on the course. Others, like me and Akemi, just had one that we know will dominate and crush the competition. I passed someone dressed as Luigi driving a Classic Dragster. I nodded, and he nodded back. He let me pass.

I came to my first mystery box. It looked for all the world that I was going to crash into something really hard, but I didn’t. The box melted around me, and I heard the jingle. A small screen popped up in front of me. Showing a blue shell. I smiled. _Bye-bye to whoever is in first!_ I pushed the arrow pad on my wii remote, and a large blue shell flew off the top of my car, away ahead of me. A satisfying boom sounded ahead of me. _Bingo._ I zoomed into first place.

Next came a giant ramp. I was a little worried about the ramp, but didn’t pay it much mind. The gyroscope I’d programmed seemed to be working, and when I took flight, I felt quite level, even though my car was doing a barrel roll. I landed kind of hard, but was okay. My car could take it The rest of the race went well. I kept winning.

I was on my fifth race when the pop up window came. _Uh oh. I’m in the middle of a race. What do I do?_ I called over to Akemi.

“My time is up. What do I do? We’re in the middle of a race. Can I leave?”

Her eyes got wide. “No! You can’t do that! The races are real time, but if you leave, bad things will happen. Just keep playing.”

I hesitantly said, “Okay.”

We kept racing. I won that race, and the next, and the next, and put myself up really high on the scoreboards. It felt so good to be amazing.

Until the third lap of one of my later races. Out of my rear view mirror came a racer right behind me. It was Mario. Or, at least, someone who looked just like him. He used a red mushroom, and zoomed past me. He said, “Bye-bye!”

I glared. This seemed familiar, but still made me mad. It was like deja vu, but my competitive spirit flared, my blood boiled, the little guy in my head was screaming, “Faster! Faster! Faster! Must beat him!” The edges of my vision grew brighter, and I skyrocketed in front of him. I felt pure joy and an extreme rush of adrenaline. I looked at Mario. He was not happy. I had never seen Mario act like this before.

Akemi came up to me. “Wow! That was amazing driving! How did you do that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. But that was awesome! Did you see the look on Mario’s face?”

She smiled. An official walked up to me, handed me a stack of papers.

“There you go son: all your winnings for today.” I took the stack. One gave me a paper cut.

“Ah!” I dropped it. Akemi and I reached down to pick them up. A drop of blood fell from my cut. In slow motion, it fell with a loud splat and hit the ground. She stopped in her tracks.

“What is it?”

Her eyes widened, her face paled, and she asked, “Wait, didn’t you say you needed to sign out?”

I waved her off. “Yeah, but that was…” My eyes widened too. “Several races ago…” I panicked. “I don’t know how to manually sign out! What do I do?”

Akemi came up to me. “Hold still.”

“Wait. What?”

She jammed her finger in my ear. Swirling her finger around for a bit, she found what she was looking for, and my pop up window appeared.

“I’ll get you home, don’t worry.” She smiled.

I waved, then selected to sign out.

Darkness.


	6. Frustrations

“Oh my goodness, he’s alive.” The sound of beeping machines surrounded me, and people were running everywhere.

“Mom? What’s going on?” My mother gave me a large kiss on the forehead.

“We were so worried! You went to sleep, like normal, but didn’t wake up in the morning. You’ve been in a coma for two days.” I gave her a hug, but was confused.

“Two days?” It couldn’t have been that long. I hadn’t been racing for two days.

“We were so worried about you. We took you to the hospital, and they couldn’t remove the remote from your hand.” I glanced down. My hand looked like it had when I first went to Simland. Super shiney, but also squarish, or maybe it could be seen as blockish. I was pixelating.

 _This is not good. I need to talk to the Guardian. And see if she can do anything about this._ The doctors were still running around, scribbling on clipboards, and talking sciency babble. I rolled my eyes. I probably would end up staying the night in the hospital. That worried me. I hadn’t really had anything to eat in Simland, so when I got back on, I would be starving. And, who knows what happened after the race.

“And, as a precaution, I’m taking away all of your consoles.” Mom’s arms were crossed. She meant business.

“What? A recovering boy from a coma can’t play video games to pass the time as an invalid? You probably will let me play outside even though I was on the verge of death?” I got a little mad. This just wasn’t fair.

"That’s not funny mister. No, I won’t let you play outside, you’re recovering. But, you can’t play your video games to pass the time. You can watch TV, or listen to the radio, or put together a puzzle. There is more to life than video games. We used to have so much fun as kids without video games. We actually played with real people.”

I groaned. “Mom, that was back when everything was black and white.”

“That’s not funny. And, we still saw with all the same colors you do. Now, get some rest. You need to get your strength back before you go back to school. I have a pile of homework from your teachers.”

Sighing, I lay back. Could this get any worse? I’m stuck in this world with nothing to do and slowly turning into a video game character in real life.

\-----

A day later, I was given permission to leave the hospital, and we went home. Mom babied me the whole way from the car, never leaving my side, and not letting go of my arm. We went up to my bedroom, mom had me sit on my bed.

“Now begins the fun part.” She stood with her hands on her hips in front of my game corner. “How do I do this?” I rolled my eyes. _Adults can be so annoying._ She tried picking up different consoles, then realized they were plugged in. She was going to ruin all my hard work. Then, I had a great idea.

“Hey, mom.” She didn’t look up from her work.

“Yeah?”

“I have an idea. Why not, instead of taking all of this apart and making a serious mess trying store all of this, how about we just turn off the circuit breaker to my room? I’ll just use a flashlight. Or, plug a lamp in in the hallway and use an extension cord to get it by my bed. And, it’s a lot less effort…”

Mom stopped. “Are you sure? How are we going to know which one goes to your bedroom?”

I smiled. “It’s the third one up from the bottom on the left side. I’ve done this before. Trust me.”

She gave me a look. “You’re not trying to trick me into anything, are you?”

I gave her the most innocent, wide eyed face I could. “I wouldn’t trick you into anything. This is just going to be easier.”

Mom shook her head. “This had better work.”

\-----

That night, after Mom had switched off the breaker to my room, I sat reading a book by the light of a lamp plugged in down the hall a ways. She came peeked her head in, said goodnight, gave me a kiss, and walked out. I didn’t know then that I wouldn’t see her for several weeks.

As soon as she shut the door, I reached into my drawer and dug for something. Something small, and easily concealed. No, it’s not a ring of power, although that would have been awesome. I was looking for my Nintendo DS., a smaller, portable, more efficient method of accessing Simland.

I had to go. There wasn’t a ton of internal conflict. None really. I needed to go clear things up with someone.

Gladly, I found that Simland had downloaded to my DS as well, and that the battery had enough life to let me play all night. I opened the game, selecting a saved game. I looked at the saved percentage. I nearly dropped the system. _That can’t be right._

My saved game said that 70% of my life-force, my blood, my being, was in Simland. I sat gaping at it for a good long while.

 _Only 30% of me is here? This is bad._ I selected the game, feeling like it was a normal sign in. I made myself look naturally asleep, knowing that Mom would come check on me in the night. I shoved the system deep under the covers.

Then, I left.

I awoke in the white room of the Guardian. She didn’t look any different from when I’d first seen her. Silver hair, silver dress, silver eyes. I stood and walked towards her.

“Why have you come here? I cannot help you.” Her voice was silvery, and powerful.

“I need your help. My body is..." I almost couldn't bring myself to say it. "Decaying. More and more of it is becoming pixelated. I came home from the hospital today, weak. What can I do to stop this thing? There must be something. Anything!” Tears rolled down my cheeks. This was really getting to me.

“Calm yourself. I’m afraid I still can’t help you. This damage that you have wrought upon yourself is irreversible. You can slow the process by being more careful about your time here, but you can’t stop it. Eventually, all of your life-force will be trapped here, leaving a lifeless, pixelated shell in your world. Then you could spend all your time here ever afterwards. “

I hung my head. “And never see my family again? To have them think I’m dead?” I realized what I’d said was going to happen. Tears streaked my cheeks.

The Guardian reached out a gentle hand, placing it comfortingly on my shoulder. “That is what will happen. But not any time soon if you are careful. Do you understand? Don’t dwell on this. You still have a lot left to do.”

I nodded, deciding not to spend so much time here. I walked to the door, bidding the Guardian farewell. She called something after me, but I was too far away. Smiling, I just waved.

The space around me was white. I knew I was walking, but it didn’t look like it. Eventually, shapes and colors began to appear, like I was coming out of heavy fog. Japan started to form around me. It was cool, suddenly coming out of nowhere, to have people stare right at you, not see you, and then see you “appear” out of nowhere. I made my way to my building, rode the elevator up, and then walked into the office. 

_Sarah? Where are you? What all happened after the race?_ I thought to her. No answer. _That’s odd. She always answers…_ I walked into the bedroom. No Sarah. I searched the kitchen, work area, then over to the blueprints space. Panic was starting to set in.

I casually flipped through blueprints. I saw the kitchen bots, the cleanup bots, the spy bots, and many of the other bots Sarah and I had built. At the bottom of the stack, I was the print for Sarah. A note was added to it. My eyes went wide, my heart pounded, and I dropped the print.

In red ink, the words, “Meet in the conference room of the garage at 11:45 alone and unarmed. If you’re not here by that time, Sarah dies.”

I turned immediately and ran.


	7. Negotiations

I caught a taxi to the garage. The great spacious area was empty, devoid of racers. It was creepy. Like, being in Grand Central Station, a place that should always be bustling with people, is empty. I kept glancing nervously over my shoulder. It felt like someone was watching me.

It took a while to find the conference room, and was almost late. I was almost hesitant to come, because the set time was fifteen minutes before I sign out. I kept reminding myself that this was for Sarah. No going back. Even if it was going to be close.

A dark doorway stood before me. A plaque next to it said it was the conference room, so I took a step in. Nothing. Just the sound of my thudding heart, and my breath in my ears.

A snap broke the silence. “Get him.” A voice from the room said, and two sets of hands roughly grabbed me from either side.

“Let me go! You can’t do this!” I looked at my attackers. They were Toads, just like the squishy headed ones from Super Mario Bros. They escorted me to a chair, shoved me in it, and tied me in place. “Where’s Sarah? What do you want from me?”

The lights were flicked on. A pudgy man in blue overalls, a red shirt, red hat, and bushy brown mustache stood before me. “Hello Skyler. So nice to meet you off the track. Here, I hope we can be a bit more civilized. “ He only stood as tall as my head when I sat down.

“Mario? What could you want with me? I have nothing to give you.” I fought against my restraints.

He chuckled. “So innocent, so weak, and yet, so powerful. You asked what I want with you, and I’ll tell you. You have great power within you, brought on by your life-force being here. It gives you the ability to harness the world around you, and shape it to your desire. That’s only part of what makes you a great Robot Specialist. I want that power. I want it for myself. I want that life-force giving me that ability over matter _._ You can give me that power.”

I was confused. _Great power? Within me?_ I tried to bluff. “Is that all? That can’t be all you want.”

He smiled. I winced. I shouldn’t have asked if he wanted more.

“There is something that comes with this power, and gave it to you.” He leaned in closer. I could smell his breath. “Access to the real world.” I gasped. None of the characters here had ever spoken of a real world. To them, it was all just in one game and out the other. Never talk of my world. “I know it exists, I have been there. I also spent enough times being told what to do in the Television. I saw the ungrateful little faces, peeping in at me. They shoved me around, and did they give me credit for slaying the bad guys? No! They gave all their praise to the slaver controlling me. I want my revenge. And you can give it to me.”

My eyes narrowed. “Why would I ever give you access to my world? That’s insane. I would never…”

He cut me off. “But you’re tired of switching back and forth between worlds. You don’t like the pressures of trying not to let your parents find out, and school, and all the other tedious things you have to do there. But here, you are free to do as you please. You can race, build, explore, create, do anything you want here. At home you are trapped. Here, you are liberated. And, with the recent events being where they stand, you would much rather not deal with having to tell your parents that you are dying, and won’t be around much longer. I can ease that. Let me take over. I can do this for you. You won’t have to deal with that world any longer.” He had a lot of good points. I was afraid to tell my parents about what was happening to me. That did sound easier. There was just something missing.

“What about Sarah? Where is she?”

“Sarah is here, and she is safe. But she won’t be returned to you until you agree to this deal. I get access to the real world, and you get to be free as a bird with Sarah, building robots to your heart’s content. What do you say?” He held out a white gloved hand.

 _Was Sarah really worth having a maniac running loose in reality?_ _Did I want to hand my life over to him?_ I found my answer.

“Deal.”

A grin spread from ear to ear reminded me too much of the Joker, and I had my last second doubts. But then I grabbed his hand, giving it a firm shake.

Then the pain started. It began at the top of my head, and at the tips of my toes. Was it my imagination, or did I hear a ripping sound? It could be, it was painful enough. My soul was being ripped from it’s lodgings and sucked to my right hand. I felt woozy and alive all at once, and flew forwards. Darkness.

\-----

Light. But, weird. And distorted. I felt strange. I didn’t fit, wherever I was. Like I was a square shoved in a circular hole. I looked around me. The Toads who had first taken me captive were now cutting someone free… me. But not me. I watched myself chuckle and grin evilly.

“Oh, the power. Ah. So strong.” I was flexing. (Not that I really had all that much to me in the first place.)

Next, they walked over to me, hauled me to my feet, and restrained me.

“What’s-a happened to-a me-a?” I gasped. My voice came out wrong. I looked down. Big black shoes poked out from blue overalls that were taught across my big, round belly. The space below my nose tickled, and I realized what had happened.

“I’m-a Mario! You can’t-a do this to-a me! This is-a not-a right! Help-a me!”

“It’s too late. The process is complete. Now, for all the worlds, I am you and you are me, Skyler. But wait, you are Mario now.” Skyler/Mario laughed. I was terrified out of my wits. Skario (Mario while he is me) paused, as the popup window appeared in front of him. He looked my way.’

“Have fun being me! It sucks!” He went to sign out. “One last thing. Sarah, she’s in your front pocket. And, ah, she died by your hands a few minutes before you got here.. Bye!” He vanished.

The Toads laughed, and escorted me out the door. It seemed Skario had told them beforehand what would happen, and where to take me. We walked back through the plaza, and into a waiting car. They shoved me in the trunk. I lay still.

Sarah’s parts gently spilled from my pocket. I took one look at them, and began crying.

I had chosen poorly.


	8. Consequences

Skario awoke in a bed. Looking all around him, he thought, _Oh, the colors, the lights, the smells, the senses. This was true power._ A woman walked into the room, and turned the light on.

“How are you feeling, Skyler? Better?” She looked worried. He pulled up Skyler’s memories in his mind. _Ah, she is his mother. No, she is my mother._

He smiled. “Much better after a good night’s rest.”

She looked slightly hopeful. “Well, if you feel up to it, I have breakfast downstairs for you.”

“Okay.” She walked out, and he stood up. Looking down, he realized that this body was pixelating. He could feel it. But still, 70/30 wasn’t a bad life-force amount. It was better than none, and felt so powerful. He got dressed and went downstairs.

Mom had pancakes with ham, a poached egg and something called hollandaise sauce on it. It was delicious. Much more delicious than anything he’d eaten in a pixelated form.

“James called yesterday and asked if he could come over. Are you up for it?”

“Sure. Can we play a video game?”

“Fine. But not you. You’re not finished recovering. Let James play for a while.”

“Okay. Thanks!” He ran upstairs. He didn’t notice his mother’s squinted eyes. She knew something was up. He’d forgotten that the circuit breaker had been switched, and that now it was back on again. She’d been compassionate in the night, and turned it back on. He hadn’t even noticed. _How odd. I hope the memory lapse isn’t a side effect from the coma…_ She shrugged, and cleaned up breakfast.

\-----

I face-planted inside a jail cell, landing hard. The Toads laughed, slammed the door, and walked away. I sat up, rubbing my bruises. Whatever had just happened, it wasn’t good. I was trapped here in Simland, Mario was running amok in my body in reality for all I knew. I banged on the bars.

“Let-a me out! This is-a unfair! What-a have I-a done-a wrong?”

They laughed, and walked away. I sat up, rubbing my arms. The cell was pretty nondescript. The back wall was brick, barred metal side walls, a bench, a hole in the corner. The usual.

“Mario?” A voice came from the next cell over. “Is it you?”

I walked over to where the voice came from. A man just a couple inches taller than myself walked up as well.

“Luigi? What-a are-a you-a doing-a here?”

“What are you doing here?” _Duh, he thinks I’m Mario._ I tried to explain.

“Look-a, I’m-a not really-a Mario.”

“Sure you’re not. Here, let me fix that accent.” He reached through the bars, then jammed his pinkie in my left ear, fishing around until he tripped a switch.

“There, better?”

“Much.” Awkward silence. “Look, Luigi, I’m not really Mario. I’m a 13 year old kid who he switched avatars with. He traded my robot helper Sarah to me in exchange for access to the real world. I guess I didn’t read the fine print, huh.”

He looked at me skeptically. “I'm hesitant to believe you. But, I do. If you were really Mario, you wouldn’t be here. You’d be ruling Simland.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Luigi sat down. I did the same. “Let me tell you a story.”

\-----

_Luigi's POV_

Mario and I grew up together in Italy. We were good brothers, and loved each other very much. I was a successful video game programmer. I came up with the original Pong. I turned down the offer to be credited for the creation of the game, passing the fame to one of my seconds in command. I was living the life of fame and fortune, and everyone thought I was just a humble genius. Everyone loved me, and was my best friend.

Mario wasn’t any of that. He was just a plumber. He hated living in the shadow of his big brother, Luigi, who was always making his family proud. It was very important in our culture at the time. Mario hated me so much, because he thought he was so much better than Luigi.

I was given a promotion in my company, and put in charge of the video game world. One branch, called virtual reality, was making headway. We were coming up with the technology that would later inspire movie makers to create the film TRON. Mario caught wind of the project and started conspiring against me. He planned to trap me in an underdeveloped game, erase my data, and destroy me completely. He thought it would work, so he plotted for a long time.

The game developers didn’t feel it was necessary to continue the creation of the game, but they had given him all the tools he needed to make a game from the inside out. He entered himself into the game, and felt great power was to be had here, and stayed, preferring This land to the real world.

He called it Mario, of course, and started creating an entire world. Full of monsters and enemies, the game developers didn’t know what to think as the computer wrote out its own code, everything moving too fast for them to fully understand.

I walked in, to see what all the commotion was about, and recognized what was happening immediately. I went into a back room where he slept when he came to visit me. His head rested on a desk in front of a computer with similar code spilling into it. I rolled him over. It became obvious he'd already been inside for several days, and something odd was happening. His body appeared to be going blocky, rigid, simpler. He was pixelating.

I knew I had to do something drastic. I always seemed to be fixing Mario's problems. I entered the game as well. It really was an amazing place, and I could see why he didn't want to leave. But he needed to come out. This place would drive him mad. But he already sensed that I had entered the game. His game. He became furious.

"You're here to take my fame!" He screamed, holding his hands up. Energy and data was created around his fingertips. A tornado of rage surrounded us both.

"No Mario!" I cried. "I am here to take you back! Your body is pixelating. The real world, too much of you is here, we must return!"

Mario grinned. "Don't you see brother? I will never leave! This place has given me power, more than you could ever imagine! I will be famous! I will be known forever more as a hero! And you. Now that you're here, you will be known as the screwup, the loser, the lame one. You will know how it feels to live in the shadow of your brother, to be scum. Now, Luigi, you will know what it is like to be me, always living in the shadows of a successful brother. where everyone hates you, and no one ever cares about you enough to ask you how you are doing, or if you are doing Ok. For the first time, you will know what it is to be me, the failure.."

"Not if I leave first!" I tried to sign out, but was stuck. Mario laughed evilly.

"No you won't. I coded this place to ensnare you and trap you forever! You will never leave!" The tornado stopped. A bright, sickeningly cheerful land surrounded us.

"Welcome to Mario world, the newest, best game in the world. The one place where I will be the hero." He pulled a lever next to him. I doubled over in pain. When it stopped, I looked at myself. Large, clunky shoes were my feet, blue overalls covered a rotund belly, and I felt tall and awkward. A bushy mustache tickled my enormously ridiculous nose.

"Oh-a no." A stupid and clumsy sounding voice came out. I was a video game character. I looked at Mario. He grinned.

"Let's-a go!"

\-----

Luigi sighed. "That's about all there is to it." I was confused.

"That can't be it. There's got to be more to it. How did you end up here?"

"Well, i suppose there is a little more to it. Years went by, and we were both played quite a bit. How he retained his sanity after that long in the television is a mystery. I nearly lost my mind. Then, I found this place. A central point between all the games that was accessible to me. I came here quite often, and liked it here. I even became friends with characters from other games. To hide my tracks from Mario, so he couldn't tell I had left his game, I created a mindless copy of myself and sent it back to the game. It wasn't hard to do, and I wouldn't be missed. Mario and I never really talked in there anyways, and we were just following whatever someone else wanted us to do. I flourished in this new place. But, one day, a Toad passed me by on a street. I was alarmed. How did another character from my world get in here? I followed him, and was captured by other Toads. They hauled me to someone they kept calling their boss. It was Mario. He'd followed me out and taken over this world! It was all very quiet, and nobody really knew he was in charge. Mario released me but warned if I tried to take away his rule, I would be thrown in jail. I got together with my friends, and we tried to rebel. A large fight took place, and we were on the brink of collapse. I gave myself up so the others could get away."

"So the rebels are still out there? They could get us out of here!"

Luigi hung his head. "It's no use. I have no way to communicate with them, and they can't get into the prison. We have no way out."

I sighed. An awkward silence sat between us. Luigi finally piped up.

"Well, now that you know my sob story, I might as well hear yours. Why are you in my brother's avatar?"

"It's a long story."

"So was mine."

"Touché. Here it goes." I told him everything. I told him about the day at James house, the fight with mom, finding Simland, meeting Akemi, creating Sarah, and exploring with the two of them. Luigi interrupted a few times to clarify a few things, but was interested in my story. His empathy was incredible. He laughed with me when I laughed, cried when I cried, and was on the edge of his seat at the suspenseful parts. In essence, he made the best audience ever. I came to the avatar changing part. He was shocked.

"This sort of technology is illegal. Or at least it should be. Switching souls? That's unheard of."

"I know. Then, my pop-up window appeared for him, and he left. It was awful."

"I'm so sorry this happened to you. Nothing like this should ever happen to anyone." He reached his arm through the bars and put it around my shoulder.

"It's okay. So his Toad goons shoved me in a car, drove me here, and dumped me in jail."

"What about Sarah?"

I'd almost forgotten about her! "She's..." I looked down. _No way._ "Still in my pocket..." Excitedly, I fished out Sarah's parts from my front pocket. Luigi was confused. "If I can get these parts together again, I could fix Sarah and have her go get help!"

Luigi grabbed me. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down. You have no tools to fix her with. It's impossible."

I looked up at him with a determined look in my eye. (Actually, I had no idea what this looked like on Mario, but I knew that's what it looked like on my body.) "I'm still a robot specialist, aren't I?"

He gave me a wary frown. "There's no way to know if something like that transfers. It may not. When you transfer between your avatar and your body, are you still a robot specialist?"

"Well, no."

"Then there's no guarantee that it will work. I have no idea if it's something written into your code, or if it's written into your soul..." Now Luigi was crazy.

"Hey." He stopped. "Let's try it."

I picked up the parts and closed my eyes. In my mind, I pictured Sarah in her glory, flying around, giving hints, helping me with my work. I recalled any and all memories of her.

"Whoa." I peeked. My hands were moving lightning fast assembling the pieces almost faster than the eye could see. I got excited and lost my focus. Several pieces fell off. My eyes scrunched up tightly. _Focus. You can do this. You just have to think of Sarah._ I couldn't feel myself working, but part of me told me I was.

"I think you're done. I don't see any more pieces." I opened my eyes. There, before me, was Sarah, exactly as I remembered her. Ask Luigi how I did it, because I honestly have no idea.

"All that's left is to turn her on." I opened the panel I knew was on the back and flipped the switch. Her red eyes began to glow, and the gravity rings engaged. Luigi watched in awe as Sarah rose into the air. I tried sending a thought to her.

_Sarah? It's me, Skyler._

**Skyler? I can hear you, but I can't tell where you are.**

_I'm in Mario's avatar. Do you remember anything that happened after the race?_

**Yeah. I returned to the office with Akemi carrying your avatar. We got you in bed. Eventually, she went home, and I stayed. I must have forgotten to lock the door after Akemi left because the next thing I knew, these Toads stuffed me in a sack and took me to their boss, Mario. He asked me a lot of questions, half of which I didn't answer. Then, they took me to the spot where they were waiting for you. They had a camera set up and were watching you come in. I tried to think to you, but you couldn't hear me. The last thing I saw was Mario's face and then nothing. What happened?**

_I was in a coma during the races. My parents freaked and took me to the hospital. I came back, found the ransom note and came to find you. But..._

**What?**

_I made the wrong choice. I traded your safety for access to the real world. I made the deal, and just before he left, he told me that he had killed you only moments before. I only just rebuilt you._

**Wow. How did you do it though? Mario doesn't have that kind of power.**

_No idea. Ask Luigi._

**Oh. Hi.**

Luigi gave me the weirdest look.

"What just happened? You were staring intently at her for like ten minutes."

I shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry about that. Sarah and I communicate by thought, and I kind of forgot you were there."

"It's okay. So. Can she fly out and get help?" Luigi looked hopeful.

I gave Sarah a smile. _Can you?_

**I can sure try. Who would you like me to get?**

I frowned. "I hadn't thought of that. Well, for sure go get Akemi. Anyone you need her to get Luigi?"

He shook his head. "We'll meet up with the resistance after we're out of here. No need to unnecessarily involve them."

"Okay. So just go get Akemi. Can you do that?"

**I can sure try.**

With that, she flew out the window. I sent a last thought to her.

_Be careful. If anything goes wrong, just back out. I'm not that important._

I didn't get a response.


	9. Help is Coming

Several hours passed by, and Luigi and I slept, ate, and talked of the rebellion. He asked if I was interested in joining, and I accepted. It fit in perfectly with my plans for revenge on Skario. We were in the middle of discussing what the rebels do when something was thrown in through the window.

Luigi and I both stared at it. It was blue, balloon-shaped, and had a question mark on the side. Almost in tandem, the two of us look at each other, then the button, then each other again, and finally at the window, our thoughts moving in similar directions.

A head poked up. A familiar face smiled.

"Looking good, Mario. Or should I say, Skyler?"

I grin. "Akemi! You came! Sarah got through okay?"

"Yeah. I got your message. Skyler, I'm so sorry about all that's happened. I shouldn't have kept you so long at the races. That was my fault. I take the blame."

"No, it's not your fault. Don't take this on yourself." I looked at Luigi. "Where are my manners? Luigi, this is Akemi. Akemi, meet Luigi."

"I already know him. He's the captain of the rebellion. I work for him." I sat open mouthed for a moment.

"Luigi, you're the one leading the rebellion? Akemi, you're part of the rebellion?"

They gave each other quizzical looks as if to say, _really? He's surprised?_

I shook my head. "Nevermind. Let's get out of here. What's with the button?"

"It's your way out. Place it on a brick surface, punch it, and escape. Easy as that." Luigi gave her a wary glare.

"There's no way to know if that will work here. They only just barely worked in my world, and even then only for a few short moments."

Resolutely, I said, "Then that's a risk we're going to have to take." I picked up the button before Luigi could object and stuck it to the wall. I reached a hand out, squinted one eye, and cautiously bopped the question button. If this worked the way it was supposed to, this button would switch all nearby brick into coins and all nearby coins into bricks.

The crazy thing was... It did.

And I almost forgot that it could.

I almost missed it.

Almost magically, a jingle started playing, and a shimmering wall of coins appeared before us.the brick wall was gone. Luigi's cell was affected too. He scrambled to his feet and through it. I sat shock, my mind taking a long time to compute, listening to the jingle. It was almost finished playing by the time I moved. Akemi helped me out.

"Man, Skyler. Your fat avatar is so slow. And weighs a ton." She grinned as I rolled my eyes.

Luigi was securing the area. "We'd better hurry. They'll have heard that, and will be here any-" He was interrupted by a siren and some shouting around the corner. He sighed and finished, "second. Run!" We took off. In and out of alleys and streets, we ran for the exit to the fortress. Behind us were large, evil looking Toads on Yoshis. Their tongues extending every few seconds, trying to snatch us. Luigi took the lead with long, loping strides. Akemi bounced along on her power risers. I bumbled and stumbled along, not having done this much motion in this new avatar, and was unused to activity. But I did find quite a bit of power in this overweight body.

Ahead of us was a fence. I saw Luigi was prepping to do some serious jumping and flipping, so I started to do the same preparations. I called on Mario's memory, and was remembering that he could do that too. Then it all clicked into place what I would need to do to get over this thing. Treat the avatar like a video game. I envisioned my wii controller in my hand. A trick combo came to mind, and I played it out. I opened my eyes and found myself on the other side of the fence.

I looked at Luigi with a look that said, _I can't believe I just did that!_ We both grinned wildly. Akemi hurried us along.

"We're almost to the meeting point! It's just around this corner!" Sure enough, a large, sleek black car was waiting for us. We scrambled inside, and the driver drove off with a squeal of the tires. I looked at who was steering.

"Nicholas? You're part of the rebellion too?" _How many people are part of this rebellion?_ It was the cyborg for the racetrack.

"You'd better believe it. There are more of us than you think." He gave me a warm smile.

I was kind of confused. "Why do you work at the racecourse if you're also part of this?"

Nicholas winked. "Still have to make ends meet, eh boy?" He then let out a chuckle and a sigh. "Besides, they still need people under cover to keep track of things. How are you holding up as Mario? He didn't put you in the tv at all, did he?"

"No, I only went to jail. What's so bad about the tv anyways?" Everyone was instantly quiet, and I hesitated to finish my thought. "I... I keep hearing about it, and still don't know anything about it." At this point, everyone was giving me stone cold hard glares. "What?"

Luigi was the only one that would meet my gaze. "The tv is an awful place. I think everyone here has done some time or another, but no one wants to remember it. The tv is just what it sounds like. You become the main character in a game, and are played by someone from reality. Don't look so surprised, Skyler, it's true. It wouldn't be so bad other than you have no control over yourself. The player controls your every movement, and the program controls your every thought. You believe you are the character, and forget who you are. It's incredible, I remember who I am. Then again, I was programmed to be the same person. You, on the other hand, if you were put into a game, you might forget who you are, because you would end up being programmed to be someone else. And, if your captors put you into several games..." He stopped.

I leaned forward. "What?"

Looking grave, Akemi's hands said everything. _Poof._

I panicked. "What? Like everything? Or, just your memory? Or... what? I'm so confused."

Luigi put a hand on my shoulder. "Calm down. It doesn't erase it, just tucks it away. It's still there, just inaccessible until someone knocks it loose."

Akemi smiled. "Don't worry about it, you're not going in the tv any time soon. You're with us now, amigo. We're gonna make sure of it. Right boys?" When no one answered, she cleared her throat, and got some "Yups" and "you bettcha's". Akemi looked satisfied.

I clapped my hands together. "Well, where are we going?"

Nicholas gave me a sly grin."To the Batcave!"

\-----

No, seriously, we did. Apparently, batman was popular in japan for a while, so here we were at an abandoned Batcave, the rebel base. I felt like a DC comic superhero combined with Nintendo, and Star Wars. My dreams were coming true. I gave a sort of squeal of excitement, but when Akemi gave me a strange look, I stopped.

"Welcome to the rebel headquarters!" Nicholas said with a wave of his arm. A small gasp of amazement escaped my lips. "Over there on the left are the barracks, to the middle is the mess hall, and to the right is where we train. Simple, eh?"

I nodded. We walked over to the mess hall. A group of people were gathered around a table. Among them were Peach, bowser, Pacman, Spartan Halo, Samus, Link, Ganondorf, a whole bunch of excitebike riders, Little Mac, Megaman, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Snake, Ike and Marth, Skull Kid, Wario, Dry Bones, Rosalina, Nate,(I still didn’t know where he was from), hundreds of Miis, (add other video game characters.) most of them were giving me steely glares. I shifted uncomfortably. Akemi linked her arm in mine.

"For those of you who thinking we're waltzing into the base with our greatest enemy, then you would be half right. This is Skyler. Mario kidnapped him and switched avatars with him for access to reality, so Skyler is trapped here. Please, don't anyone kill him, he's on our side. Good?" A few people murmured some halfhearted cheers, and she yelled louder. "I SAID GOOD?" They roared "YEAH!" Some characters charged their beams, adding energy to the room.

I roared with them, and felt their excitement. This was what it felt like to be part of something of great, and important. Nicholas and Luigi joined in as well.

"GOOD!" She walked out and everyone began milling about again. Nicholas grabbed me and took me aside.

"There's a couple of things you should know."

"Fire away."

He nodded to a side room. I followed.

"Here's the truth. Most people here would prefer to see you dead." We both gave an understanding shrug. We both knew how it was. “I’m just pointing out the truth. Next, You should know, Akemi, her prosthetic legs? Those didn’t come from just any racing accident. HE did that to her. She broke into his compound, got all the way to his private quarters, but he got her right at the end. It was horrible. We fixed her up with those prosthetics and within a week of having them, she was out in the field again, fighting along with the rest of the team. She is driven by her desire for revenge, and nearly got caught. I ordered her to work on her civilian side, and get away from battle for a while. She sulked, and was threatening to return to her game when you came along. You excited her so much, she came to me at the raceway, and told me all about you. She could tell something was different with you, but couldn’t quite place it. It wasn’t until the races that we knew. She panicked. Really, we all did. Then… here we are.”

It all made sense now. Akemi was really quite a deep character. I hadn’t realized it.

I clapped my hands together. “So, when do I begin training?” Nicholas was surprised.

“Don’t you know how to fight?” I shrugged.

“Ish. I come from reality with a limited physical movement. But, I have a wide range of knowledge in fighting characters in video games. I can maneuver any control, and do all the cool moves. I come here, and can manipulate objects by detaching and performing those moves with a controller. I did a cool vault earlier over the fence, just like I can do with Mario in a game. So, I know what I’m doing, but-”

“Don’t really know how to do it, right?”

“Right. So, can I train?” I gave a pleading smile.

Nicholas returned it. “Sure. Follow me.”

\-----

Skario was getting the hang of reality. He understood how to manipulate Skyler’s memories, and use them to seem normal. He ‘remembered’ teachers, friends, and family members. He even remembered James.

The school bus pulled up, and he got on. He saw James sitting in the middle, and sat down next to him.

“Hey, James.”

“Hey, Skyler. What’s up?”

He gave a shrug. “Not much. How ‘bout you?”

“I’m doing pretty good. Hey, I was wondering where you got that game you like, Simland? Was it? I kinda want to get on, you know, try it, and didn’t know how you got it.”

Skario lit up. “Yeah, I have the link to it online, right here in my backpack. I was totally just about to give it to you, so, you know, we could get on, and, like, play together. Here it is.” He handed it to James. “Just get on, make your profile, but don’t start until about 8:00. I’ll be waiting for you there. Okay?”

James smiled. “Sweet! Thank you! See you there!” The bus pulled up to school, and they got off.

“See ya!” James called.

“See ya!” Skario called too, and smiled. Inwardly, he laughed maniacally. This was turning out better than he hoped for. Another human for his use. His plan was pure paragon. It would just be a matter of hacking the system to get into James profile, and reworking it such that all the lifeforce went into his profile, and kept him alive, and slowly drained James of life. That would keep Skyler’s body alive a lot longer. Then, he would find other people, do the same thing, and live forever, and eventually rule both worlds. For now, he just had this one body, and soon to be one other, but eventually, he would have an army’s supply of lifeforce to sustain him.

This would be a piece of cake.


	10. Getting in the Field

I fell on my rear end. Again. The instructor shook his head.

“For someone with one of the most powerful avatars in the history of Simland, you suck at self defense.” He offered me a hand, and helped me up.

“It’s not that I suck, I just am not used to doing this sort of thing.”

He gave me a look. “No, it means you suck. Let’s just try this again.” I got into position, raised my hands in the air, and took a deep breath. “Now, all it is is a simple cartwheel. Easy. Lean back, throw forward, plant your hands, bring your feet over your head, and down again. You can do this.”

I scowled. I couldn’t do cartwheels in reality. What made him so certain I could do it here? I tried again. The mat gave a gentle thud as I landed on my back. The instructor stood over me.

“You want to try something else, or call it a day?” I shook my head. I was determined to get this. The sooner I got this, the sooner I could enact my revenge on Skario.

“I’ll get this. I’m just not thinking about it right.” I got into position again, took a deep breath, and remembered something. That night I’d vaulted over the fence, I’d thought about it like I was playing Mario. Suddenly, I detached, and saw myself standing on the mat. I maneuvered my avatar to do a cartwheel, then decided to freak my instructor out. I turned it into a front handspring, then a quadruple flip. After I’d landed myself, I reattached, and turned around to see the look on his face. It was priceless. His mouth hung open, astonished. I grinned.

“How d-did y-you d-do th-that?” He stuttered, shakily pointing a finger. I shrugged.

“Something to do with the fact that I’m a really powerful avatar with the knowhow of a video game fanatic. Can we do something else?” He nodded.

\-----

Two weeks later, I was on my first mission. I’d finished my training in remarkable time, progressing ahead of all the normal recruits. Each time I was faced with a difficult course, I detached and had amazing control over my avatar. But, being encouraged not to do that when it came to hand-to-hand combat, I stayed in my avatar. This seemed logical in case I was ever jumped, and couldn’t detach fast enough. I excelled even at this. It seemed that Mario had done a fair bit of hand-to-hand combat in his time.

So, here I was on my mission, undercover and disguised as a Yoshi. I was at the Premier Mario Kart racing event, for the elite and wealthy. I couldn’t recognize anyone. All the racers chose their favorite characters, and cart to race in. We all wore thick, heavy costumes, making mobility zero, and sight less than that.

I was dressed as Yoshi, and would be driving the classic dragster. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to be here, but Luigi and Nicholas pulled a few strings so I could have a mission. As I walked over to my vehicle, I made eye contact with Akemi. She and I both nodded. She had my back if anything went wrong, and I had hers. She was dressed as Princess Peach.

They had it from an inside source that Skario would be here with a consort of Toads, and a “friend.” No one knew who the friend would be. 

I hopped in my car. I was excited for this race, because I hadn’t been on the track since the incident. It became obvious who Skario was, dressed as Mario in Standard Kart.

_James would wonder why he didn’t pick Yoshi classic dragster. He knows it’s my favorite._

The telltale “boop, boop, boop, beep!” signaled, and we were off. I did really quite well, and was in the top three along with Skario and someone dressed as Toad.

 _Hu. Toad is James’ favorite. Same bike too… uh oh._ It took me far too long to realize that Skario had brought James into the game too. This was bad. This was really, really bad.

I finished the race in second place, after James, but before Skario. We stood on the winning platform smiling and waving at the cameras. After they left, Skario and James went into a room off of the raceway. Curious, I followed, knowing that Luigi would be disappointed but curious as well. I saw Akemi shaking her head. _Bad idea. Don’t do it._ I rolled my eyes at her. _How bad could it be?_

I poked my head in. Skario pulled the head off of his Mario costume, and James pulled the Toad head off. They laughed and talked about the race. It made me a little angry. This was something I would do with James. How dare Skario do that! I was about to march in, but remembered myself at the last minute.

It was enough. James saw the nose of my Yoshi costume, and called, “Hey, Yoshi! Congrats! Come celebrate with us!” He smiled, looking normal. It pained me to see him here. What if Mario did the same thing with him as he did with me? Would it be my fault?

Desperately, I stuck with the standard Yoshi talk. “Yoshi yoshi.” (Being translated, “No thanks.”)

Skario held out his hand. “Oh, come on, man. We both know you’re not really Yoshi in there. He’s not that good a driver.” He rolled his eyes at James, and they pulled me into the room. James attempted to take the Yoshi head off.

In a warning tone, I said, “Yoshi yoshi yoshi. Yoshi yoshi yoshi.” (Again, interpreted: “I’m warning you, I have a fireball.” or, “Pardon me sir, forgot my pills.” Which ever way you read the inflections.)

“Who’s in there?” Skario, getting impatient, finally succeeded in removing the head. Both of them gasped. “How did you-?”

“Awesome!” James bounced up and down, fangirling. “This is amazing! Can I get your autograph?”

I held up my hands. “Slow down, I’m not actually Mario.” James was confused. I pointed to Skario. “I’m Skyler, that’s Mario.”

He looked back and forth between us, obvious confusion written into his face. “B-But?”

“Mario stole my avatar right soon after the coma. I’m stuck in his now. You have to stay away from him, he’ll probably try the same with you!”

James looked to Skario. “What’s he talking about?”

Skario glared at me. “I did meet with Mario right after the coma, and he did try to switch avatars, but I got away.. He wants access to the real world! He’ll try to steal your avatar! Run!”

James looked back and forth between the both of us. One was his best friend. The other was his worst enemy. He just couldn’t tell who was who.

“I- I- I-” He suddenly ran out leaving me with Skario. He snapped his fingers, and some Toad thugs grabbed me. I hopelessly tried to wriggle free. They held tight, gripping my arms like they were choking a python. I felt the bruises appear.

“Just couldn’t stay away, could you: Had to come and spook James, huh?” he spun around quickly and slapped me across the face. “Well, apparently prison wasn’t good enough for you. Oh, don’t worry I have something better. Much better. In fact, I should have done this in the beginning.” I gulped. He snapped once more and another Toad reached forward with a damp cloth and covered my mouth and nose.

_Chemicals. Uh oh._

I blacked out.


	11. TV Time

James burst the doors, and onto the streets of Tokyo. He ran like his life depended on it. Up and down streets, in and out of alleyways he dodged. Anything to get away from his confusion. He finally realized that he couldn’t go forever, so he headed back to the penthouse where he and Skyler stayed. Upon entering the building, he noticed the extra amount of Toads in the lobby. _Interesting._ He went inside the elevator, and stewed on the happenings of earlier, and mulled them over. Had he made the right decision? The elevator finally dinged, and he walked into the main room. Skyler was waiting for him.

“What was that back there? What’s the deal with you and Mario?” James stormed up to him, and got in his face. “Have you been lying to me?”

Skyler grabbed his arms. “Calm down. No, I haven’t. You just never asked about it.” James shoved him off.

“Yeah right. Come on, tell me the truth.” Skyler held up his hands.

“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you. But let’s play a game first. Okay? Calm down, and talk about this like human beings, okay?” He led James over to the TV in the corner. The thing was enormous, 500 inches diagonally from corner to corner. They sat down in two beanbags in front of it. James reached down to grab his normal controller, but Skyler took it from him. “There’s this new game I just got. You don’t need any controllers, or anything.” He opened a new door next to the TV and gestured inside. “You move around in here, and I’ll watch it on the screen. Okay?”

James looked at it suspiciously. “You sure about this?”

Skyler rolled his eyes. “Are you scared?”

James glared at him. “Fine. I’ll do it. But then it’s your turn, okay?”

Skyler smiled. “Sure. Get in! I can’t wait!”

James stepped inside, and Skyler shut the door. It was very dark inside, and slightly cramped. James sat in silence for several moments. Then, suddenly, several grabbers clamped onto his arms, wrists, head, and ankles. A bright red light shone from the ceiling. It gave him a tickling sensation all over. An intense tickle started with his toes, then worked it’s way up. Soon, he realized he couldn’t feel his feet. He couldn’t move his head to see what was going on, but when it reached his head, he blacked out.

\-----

Skario sat on one of the bean bags. He’d popped a bag of popcorn, and was munching away at the puffed kernels. The TV flashed on, and he grabbed his controller. Mario Bros. was loading. He went all the way in to a level. When Mario appeared, he seemed to be struggling against something, but as soon as he maneuvered him around for a while, he stopped. He played through the level, then quit the game.

He stood up, and opened the door. James stood inside, looking rather dazed. Skario pulled him out, and sat him down on a bean bag.

“Hey, you okay?” James looked around, confused.

“What happened? Where am I?” 

“You were at the race, and you blacked out for a while. I brought you back here to recover. What do you remember?”

James shook his head. “Only that I won the race. Yoshi got second, and you got third. It’s all fuzzy after that.”

Skario put an arm around him. “Well, you’re better now. That’s all that matters.”

A low nod came from James. “Yeah. Sure. I was just wondering. Why were you Mario at the race? You usually play Yoshi. What made you switch?”

He stiffened. He hadn’t thought James would figure it out so quickly. He came up with a quick lie. “I just needed a break from the same old character. You know? You become a better player if you can win with any character and any car. Just keeping it fresh.”

It satisfied James. Everything was back to the way it was. Skario was glad he’d had a cable box installed. It would have been really messy if he’d have had to explain everything to him.

\-----

I awoke from darkness. _Where am I? What’s going on?_ My memory was foggy, so I couldn’t remember where I’d been before I’d woken up.

Suddenly I had the urge to jump. Like, right then and there. I didn’t care that I didn’t know what was below me. I just HAD to jump. It was instinct. I leaped, landing on a squishy hat, then flew on again with a boost. I’d bounced off of Luigi’s head and gotten a helicopter power. Score!

Then, words that weren’t mine were spilling out of my mouth as I spiraled upwards. “New Super Mario Brothers! Whee-hee!” I felt so important.

Darkness again. Soon, light again. I stood in place. Luigi soon joined me. Darkness again.

When the light came once more, I stood in a very narrow landscape. To my left, flat hills, blue skies, and puffy white clouds. To my right, a ginormous glass screen. I could see two boys on the other side. They were enormous too, and looked familiar.

My attention was diverted from the boys. I felt the urge to run forward. I followed it. Then, the urge to jump. I hesitated, but did it anyways. One leg bent at the knee, the other was straight. With a BLIP! I landed on something. It looked like it was a goomba…

Look forward again. Parkour flip up onto a pile of bricks floating in the air. Jump again. pause midway, and sit really hard on one of them. A helicopter hat popped out. Score!

I felt myself grow from quite small to very tall with a cool hat.

“Sweet! Thanks Skyler, I can never get those!” I turned again. The two boys were smiling. One held a white remote. Suddenly, it all came rushing back to me. Mario switching avatars, prison, Akemi, the rebels, the race, seeing James, rollowing him, seeing Skario telling him to run, and then being knocked out. _I’m… I’m… I’m in the game…_

I parkour flipped again, killing two turtles and leaping over a piranha plant. It all felt so… real. My movements that were urged, instead of being mine, the narrow landscape that had death waiting for me every five feet.

My first death came a few seconds later. I fell down a hole into darkness. When I came to, I was stuck in a bubble. I beat on the walls, but couldn't break out. "Help me! You're killing me!" Finally, a green hat popped the bubble and I forgot my worry. I was Mario, and Mario can do anything. Luigi and I would take Bowser down, and save the beautiful Princess Peach. _Ah,_ I sighed, not realizing that I was killing turtles and goombas left and right.

I was a flag ahead. _Victory!_ I felt impressed to jump on Luigi’s head. His hat was bouncy. I flew to the top, and had the satisfaction of earning an extra life. I was urged to flip off, as a fanfare rang.

“Oh yeah!” Luigi and I said in unison. Then we ran into a dark castle. Into darkness…

\-----

I awoke confused. _Where am I? What’s going on?_ My memory was foggy. I couldn’t remember what had happened before the darkness. Was there anything before the darkness? It didn’t matter. I had to save Princess Zelda.

I ran forward. I felt like I was invincible. I saw a bad guy ahead of me. I pulled my sword from its scabbard and slew the awful thing. Success.

“Wow, you’re good with amy game Skyler! How do you play this one?”

“I’ll show you.” A familiar voice. It felt like it had been my voice, but wasn’t anymore. It belonged to someone else. NOT me. I’m Link. Whoever Skyler was, he wasn’t important. “First, this one moves you back and forth.” I felt impressed to run forwards, then turn around and run back. “This one swings the sword.”

 _SO POWERFUL! Must kill baddies!_ I thought these things as I swung my sword. “This one lets you jump.” _Must jump higher! Must jump farther!_

“What happens when you die?” Part of me was puzzled. _Die? Why would I do that? I’m Link. I don’t die._ The other part of me said, _Uh oh. This is gonna hurt._

“You go back to the next checkpoint. Watch.” I jumped, ran forward, and attacked. A bigger baddie than last time came along.

He swung his axe at my arm. OW!!! Something told me that would have cut off my arm anywhere else, but right now it just REALLY hurt.

“OH, you’re down a few hit points.” I swung with all my might missed, and was skewered through the back I passed out.

\-----

I felt a strange energizing sensation, six large beams of energy running up and down my body. Icons flew around on my visor, placing themselves where they needed to go. I ran forward, hefting a giant gun in front of me. A huge blast shot from the barrel, echoing down into the blue door in front of me. The door pulled open, revealing a hallway beyond.

I ran through, feeling cautious yet confident. Three bug-like monsters detached from the ceiling, spinning towards me. Instinctively I threw my arm up, blasting them to pieces. Bits of aliens rained down around me as I charged on, feeling the rage and pain that backed my mission.

 _“I will kill you Ridley. I will kill you if it is the last thing I do.”_ I hated the dragon. He had killed my parents, and I swore that I would get my revenge. I gunned down another alien, vaulting over its body with one powerful leap. Suddenly, my visor flashed red. I looked up and around, hearing explosions and seeing more red, but nothing that would explain why I was being hurt. I looked up to the corner of the rock face next to me and saw a small blaster firing a missile out at me.

It smashed straight into my visor, cracks spider-webbing outwards. I let out a high pitched shriek of surprised, my vision blinking out to black.

\-----

This pattern of darkness and brief playing periods went on and on. It felt like years. I switched through Pac Man, Pong, Frogger, you name it, I was in it.

Although, really, I don’t remember any of it. See, the programs were designed to wipe recent memory before play. So, from level to level, I didn’t remember anything of the previous game.

I died many tragic and heroic deaths. Most were painful. Good thing I don’t remember any of them. I would have recurring nightmares.

There came a day when I awoke to light, and wasn't urged to do anything. I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. I’d forgotten what it meant to tell myself to move. It was _soooo_ much easier to just let someone else tell me how to move. In a lot of ways, I felt disconnected between my brain and my body. I lay on my back in what looked like a lab.

“Oh, you’re out. Had a rough turn there?” A teenage boy walked in. He had blonde hair swept up into several spikes above his forehead. He was rather tall. His voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. _Should I know him?_

"Did you enjoy your time in the TV? Quite refreshing, isn’t it? And relaxing. Especially for you here. You’ve all but lost the will to live.”

I stared half confused and half blankly at him. He chuckled.

“You don’t even remember who you are, let alone who I am. Let’s start at the beginning. I’m Skyler, and you are Mario. You and I are best buds! But, because you’ve been in the TV for too long, you’ve disconnected from your body. So, I’ve decided to be a pal, and help you get your strength back, by designing you a robot suit. I’m a Robot Specialist by the way. Here it is!”

He stepped back. Behind him stood a black suit of armor. It seemed to suck all the light from around it.

“Like it? I built it myself. I have to go now, but the Toads will help you get in.” Skyler left. Two Toads who seemed to appear from nowhere picked up suit, and laid it on another gurney and slid it over next to me.They unhooked the feet from the suit and put them on mine. I didn’t feel anything. This continued on until the whole suit was on.

A third Toad came approached with a rolling table of tools. He carefully maneuvered a remote’s joystick so that I shot up. He lowered my gurney. With two sets clamps, he picked up the helmet piece and placed it on my head. It sort of whooshed as it fell over my eyes. At the neck, it clicked into place and a steady stream of chemicals flowed straight to my brain.

The Toad pushed a button the the controller. A small wormlike thing shot out from next to my ear inside the helmet. It poked around for a moment before finding my ear. It wriggled around a lot. Finally, it found what it was looking for, my brain.

With a bite and a tingle, I was out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! A long chapter! 
> 
> ... Really all this boils down to is me choosing how long of chapters I previously wrote to combine into chapters here... So I hope you enjoy!


	12. Parading as the Another

Akemi and Sarah were in Luigi’s office. Akemi stood with her hands behind her back, looking down at where her feet would be. Her bright red power risers glinted in the cold office light. Sarah hovered next to her ear. Their purpose in the office was a grim one. One neither of them wanted to admit what happened. Akemi blinked back tears, hoping she wouldn't cry.

Luigi sighed. “So you mean to tell me that Skyler fell into the hands of the enemy on his first mission?” She nodded. “And that he approached the enemy by himself, unaided, and alone? And, you let him do it?”

Akemi bit her lip. She didn’t want to say anything, but knew she had to. Sarah covered for her. “Yes. We tried to follow, but the area he was in was compromised, and it was impossible to enter without risking the lives of other agents. Skyler knew what he was doing, and got caught. The enemy had him outnumbered, and we couldn’t-”

Luigi interrupted her. “I understand. This is my fault. I put him in the field too soon. He wasn’t ready. I ought to have prepped him with smaller missions, I ought to have-”

“Don’t take it on yourself, Luigi. This was all my fault.” Akemi broke in. “I wasn’t watching him carefully enough, and knew where he was going. And if I hadn’t invited him to that race that first day, we wouldn’t even be in this mess.”

“Whoa, whoa, everyone calm down. This is no one's fault, and we all know it. Stop thinking it’s yours. The enemy just outsmarted us this time, that’s all. Now, who’s up for a rescue mission?” Sarah flitted back and forth between Luigi and Akemi, a hopeful tone in her voice.

Luigi shook his head. “You don’t understand. Skario has access to a horrible torture chamber for his prisoners.” Akemi paled. He couldn’t be implying what she thought he was.

“You don’t mean…”

He solemnly nodded. Sarah asked, “What is it?” Akemi shook her head. She wasn’t about to say it.

“He has most likely put Skyler in the TV.” Sarah gasped.

“Is that even legal?”

“This is Mario. Nothing is lawful to him. And if I know Skyler, and Mario, Mario will most likely put him in multiple games. And…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it. But everyone knew what he was going to say.

Skyler was lost.

\-----

Skario sat at the top of his skyscraper, gazing out at Simland. He knew he was winning. Why wouldn’t he be? He had a body that gave him access to a realm prime for takeover, a source of lifeblood that would keep this body alive forever, and was all set to get other sources from Skyler and James’ other friends. He would never have to go through with the deal he made that he would have to “break it to his parents.” This body would outlive them all and everyone it knew before. Skario smiled. But he soon remembered part of his reason for his conquest of the real world.

To be able to kill Luigi.

\-----

Akemi sat perched on a fire escape landing, monitoring the street below. A parade was going through celebrating the coronation of a new ruler. Banners, flags, and floats were garishly sporting the face of this emperor. He wore Skyler’s face, but Akemi knew he was her worst enemy. Skario.

Dancers and bands, floats and decorations, all in honor of a hoax. The noise was deafening. People were milling about this way and that, watching the parade, shopping at the shops, and shouting at the tops of their lungs. It made her hate him even more. A big bully who had everyone convinced he was so special. _Why did he take the throne again? Oh yeah._

Skario had appeared on TV a week ago, proclaiming he was the rightful ruler of Simland, claiming himself as a user, and waltzing in and taking over the world. It was awful. So, now here he was, parading through the city, on his way to the coronation. Akemi had a team in place to slow the proceedings. It was the least they could do for Skyler. They wouldn't take Skario out, because then Skyler could never return to reality. They would only take it captive and hope to question Skario into telling them where Skyler was.

An enormous float came around the corner. Skario sat atop it, waving his hand at the hoard of onlookers. _I hate that guy._ Akemi thought to herself. _Not that he's not good looking, he's just wrong. If Skyler were in his own body, it would look more normal. He just looks fake, like it’s not him. It's sure gonna be hard to think of him as Skyler again, eventually._

An agent in the crowd gave the signal, and Akemi got into position. Her rifle was set to stun. She put the eyepiece in place, and took aim. The trigger was almost pulled back to fire when...

"HOLD IT!" Her agent’s voice screamed in her ear. She pulled back. _Dang. I could have hit him._

“What was that for?” Akemi fiercely whispered. “I totally had him.”

“Don’t you see who’s standing next to him?” She put her eye back to the sights on the rifle.

“No. Who?”

“You don’t see the figure in a black suit that’s not a Toad, and looks like something out of a nightmare?”

“What are you talking about? All I see are Toads and…” Akemi inhaled loudly. “Is that…”

“Affirmative. Do we take him out too?”

“Nah, can’t through all that armor… Think it’s a good idea to abort?”

“Yup. Backing off now… wait. He’s moving. Coming towards me. He sees me! Back up! Abort! Abort! Abort!” Akemi did not see what happened, but could guess. She switched off the mike, and watched the scenes from below. She turned away when the armor started coming off her partner, and his screams rose to her ears. She backed up and was making her escape, when a Toad cut her off.

“Gotcha!” He stupidly made a grab for her, but she nimbly slid beneath him, spinning around and catching his legs. He fell over, knocking his head on the wall. Akemi picked herself up, and sprinted out into the hallway. As she passed doors, more and more Toads spilled out, running after her. She increased her speed, making a mad dash for her exit point.

A roar caught her off guard ahead, causing her to pause for a millisecond, but no more. She cornered, pausing to catch her breath. Looking out the window in front of her, Akemi saw a large eye, glowing blue, with large red veins clearly visible. Realizing what it was, she took off again. _They have a cave troll._ A crash behind her sent glass shattering in all directions. Again, closer, another crash. If she didn’t hurry, it would catch her…

Toads came around the corner ahead, another crash behind. Akemi was trapped. _Or I could use what I have…_ She stopped mid thought, and held still. A window shattered right in front of her, and quickly, she clambered aboard the hand. It pulled back, surprised it’s prey sat atop it’s hand. Akemi leaped above it’s head, and rolled hard behind it. As fast as possible, she leapt up and took off running.

This was not going as planned.

\-----

This was amazing.

My headset registered the sounds of the screams, my controller working the limbs of the suit. Skyler’s creation had made it possible for me to be controlling my body without feeling anything, and to be really powerful. I reclined on the beanbag, munching popcorn, taking it easy. The screen ahead of me showed what my eyes were registering, and what my body was doing.

The room around me seemed slightly boring, but that was to be expected. After all, it was my mind. When I’d awoken after getting the suit, Skyler came and explained he was going to be in a parade. Our conversation went like this.

“That’ll be fun.” I sat up on my bed, still wearing the suit. It substituted the broken connection between my brain and my body, and allowed me to move.

“Yeah. I’m inviting you to be my bodyguard. There’s some people who really don’t like me, and will stop at nothing to take me out. Can you be there to keep me safe?”

I shrugged. “Sure. I don’t know how well I can do that though. I’m still recovering.”

"I know you can. I trust you.” He smiled. “Oh. There’s something I forgot to mention about the suit.” Skyler walked over, reached behind my head, felt around for a moment, then something clicked. A sucking feeling began at what the suit told me was the base of my neck. Suddenly, I was in a small room with a tv on the wall, a bean bag, controller, headset, and ultimate snack bar. I looked around. _Where am I?_

The headset on the bean bag buzzed. I picked it up, placing it on my head. “Hello?”

Skyler’s voice came through. “You okay in there? It worked?”

“Yeah. Where am I?”

“Your mind. Really, it’s your consciousness in there. Turn on the TV and grab the controller.” After doing that, I saw Skyler’s face on the TV, and he smiled. “Sweet. Okay. The controller is how you move, like with any game. The TV shows what your eyes are registering. Don’t worry about getting hurt. The suit handles all senses like that. Got it?”

I toggled a joystick, making my head move. “Got it. When do we leave for the parade?”

Skyler grinned. “Right now.”

\-----

So, here we were, on the float. Skyler was waving to the masses, several Toads stood around him. I stood a little ways back in the shadows, trying not to be noticed. I scanned the crowds, looking for anything that would be a hazard. I’d discovered different view settings on the helmet of my suit. I could go night vision, infrared, and even detect weapons.

That was what I was set on right now, scanning the crowd. To the left, a character had a large net, with a taser in his belt loop. On the right, another sat on a fire escape with a rifle loaded, and pointed at Skyler. I stepped forwards a little more, letting the one on the left see me. He commed into his headset, aborting the mission. Then, to ensure they left, I carefully hopped off the float, in his direction. I command the Toads back on the float to send in reinforcements to stop the other threat. The character I was pursuing stepped back, prepping to take off. I knew he was trained, and began taking him down, just like it was a video game. Really, that’s all it was to me. A fun takedown game. I ensured my prey was sufficiently destroyed, and picked my way through the crowd back to the float.

Skyler made eye contact. I nodded. He turned back, waving and smiling. I had done my job well. Again.

\-----

Luigi sat in his office. He’d been monitoring comms between agents on assignment during the parade. Seven agents down, and five on the run. Akemi was still MIA, but that was to be expected. She’d left her mike on, and he’d heard the Toad, and the shattering glass from the Troll. Her breath echoed around his office, making him nervous. He could understand her plight. Any run in with a cave troll would make one run like the dickens.

The door suddenly burst open. Akemi ran in and fell to the floor. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Luigi rushed over, paging a paramedic.

“Akemi, what happened? Are you hurt?” He looked her over. Nothing seemed wrong. She sobbed for several moments before answering.

“It’s Skyler.” She sobbed for another minute. Luigi held her close.

“What about Skyler? Is he out of the TV? Is he okay?”

She nodded then shook her head. “He’s out, I saw him. But, he’s not right. Skario did something to him.” She burst into tears again. All this crying was not getting him anywhere. Wincing, he slapped Akemi. She sat up straight, stopped crying and apologized.

“Now, what happened to Skyler?”

She spoke quickly. “Skario probably brainwashed him in the TV, and led him to believe he is Mario, and that they are buddies. So Skyler is his bodyguard now, wearing a black suit, and he was the one that took out all the agents. He’s deadly. I have no idea if we can fix him.”

Luigi inhaled. This was worse than he’d expected. The most he’d feared was that Skyler was dead. Skario went too far with this. He sat back, dazed.

“Luigi?”

“Yes?”

“There is a way to fix him… right?” She looked him in the eyes, hers still filled with tears.

He exhaled. “There had better be.”


	13. Outside Help

Deep below the rebel base, a dusty room, sat unused for many years, containing only one object. Luigi punched in the secret code. No one alive knew this place even existed. He led Akemi through the doorway. The large, foreign thing sat on a pedestal in the middle. Stepping up, he opened it.

With a WHOOSH an eruption of dust exploded everywhere. They both coughed.

“This is the Operation Manual?” Akemi gasped, still choking on dust.

“Yup. This is the Operation Manual. Everything about everything is contained in here. Even how to fix Skyler.” He didn’t add the maybe he knew he should have said.

“Are you sure there isn’t a digital version?”

Luigi chuckled. “If there was, it wouldn’t be secure, would it?” He opened the index, looked up “player reset,” and flipped to it. “Let’s see here… hmm… reset landscape, reset to presets, reset… ah! Here it is! Reset player.” He read the section. His brow furrowed.

“What is it?” Akemi drew closer.

“This is problematic. It says a player can only be reset if someone does it from the outside.”

“Then we have a problem.” Akemi folded her arms. “Where are we going to get an outside source?” They both thought. Silence. The blaze of inspiration hit them both at the same time.

“James!”

“But how will we get to him?”

Luigi gave a grim smile. “Well, at any rate, it’ll be easier than fixing Skyler.” He shut the book, and they exited, locking the heavy door behind them.

\-----

James snored quietly in his bed back in reality. His dreams were pleasant, if tainted by his experiences in Simland. He tossed and turned, unsettled by his thoughts.

Suddenly, he sat bolt upright. A strong urge to get on and play Simland crossed his mind. He tried to resist, thinking, _No, I won’t. I’ve been playing this too much. I’m not well anymore._ It was true. His health was failing, and he just didn’t feel right anymore. He always felt more alive and energetic in Simland.

The urge grew stronger, until it almost had an undeniable presence in his mind. _YOU NEED TO PLAY SIMLAND!_ Almost against his will, he walked over to his console, grabbed the controller, and signed in. He woke in his apartment. _I don't feel any better. I think I'm addicted._ He climbed out of bed, strolled over to the mini fridge, grabbed a Sprite, and took a large swig. He shut the door, and someone spoke from behind the fridge.

"You know, it was way too easy to break in here." The girl stepped out into the light.

"Akemi? What are you-" he was cut off by a loud THWACK! and James was knocked out cold.

\-----

James awoke to a bright light. Squinting, he looked around, not knowing where he was. Cold stone was beneath and on one side of him, penetrating his clothes and giving him a chill. He sat up, and saw he was in a dark cell. The barred door was silhouetted by a dim light down the hallway. A tray with food sat just beneath the doorway. He walked over to it, only to be pulled up short by the manacles on his ankles. A plate of food came rushing up, and splattered everywhere, his face sopping. As he struggled to pull himself up, he found that his hands were shackled as well to the wall behind him, holding him in place. James groaned. _Great. I hope no one has to see me like this. This is just embarrassing._

Footsteps echoed from down the hallway. He hurriedly pulled himself up, and tried his best to wipe the food off his face. The door opened. A shadowed face peeked in. “Akemi?”

“Someone who wants the same thing she does.” He couldn’t tell who it was, but the voice sounded familiar.

“And what does she want, exactly?”

“Freedom.”

“Freedom from who?’

“You know who. Mario. Or, as you think you know him as, Skyler.”

James was confused. “Skyler? What? How could he be… oh.” He sat back, realizing what was happening. “But he only just rose to power. This place seems to have been going for a lot longer than that.”

“He’s been toying with the political world for some time now. I have experienced his tyranny a lot longer than anyone else has. Trust me. We’re after the right person.” The figure finally stepped into the light.

“Luigi? Ok. That makes more sense. But why am I here? I haven’t done anything.”

“You’re the key to liberating this whole world, and possibly all of them. You’re the closest person to Mario, you can turn the tide of this whole endeavor.”

“You mean I’m closer to Skyler.”

“No. Well, yes. Maybe. It’s complicated.”

“Apparently I have time. Go ahead. And, again, I would like a motive for why I should help you, so I know I’m not overthrowing some actual legitimate government, that doesn’t need to be overthrown. Right?”

“Yes… Anyway, Mario captured Skyler, your friend a while back, and switched avatars with him. So Skyler as you think he is now is actually Mario. As soon as he had a nondescript avatar with which to overtake the government with, he did it. Skyler escaped prison with me, and we went into hiding and trained him. But, on his first mission, at the race several weeks ago, he got captured, partly due to you. Skario, Mario while he has Skyler’s avatar, brainwashed him, and convinced him that he is Mario, so how he is Skario’s personal, deadly bodyguard.”

James sat open mouthed for several seconds. Then, coming to his senses, he asked, “How come I don’t remember any of this?”

“Skario minimally brainwashed you too. That enough for you?”

He nodded. “What can I do? I don’t see Skario very much anymore, he’s always out doing gov stuff.”

Luigi shook his head. “The less he sees you, the better. This isn’t something you need to do here in Simland. You have to do it from the outside.”

“Ok. What is it?”

“This is the tricky thing. We don’t really know very well what needs to happen, but we do have an idea. You need to reset his character profile. We’re hoping that will reverse the damage to Skyler, and switch the two back. It can’t be done here, Skyler’s too dangerous. He has already done a lot of damage. It needs to stop. Are you up to the task?” Luigi looked hopeful.

James thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Game on.”


	14. The Best Laid Plans

I stood in the shadows, unmoving, and noted any movement and speech. Skyler was having a party. I knew beforehand that parties were dangerous. Especially ones with flashing lights, loud music, and annoying friends that bring friends who bring friends, who bring friends, turning a party of six into thirty. I monitored Skyler closely, ensuring nothing would happen to him. Eyes sweeping back and forth, I checked for external threats, making sure no one was planning on killing him.

James casually walked in, smiling, cool, nonchelant. He approached Skyler.

“Hey, Skyler. S’up? Mario.” He nodded respectfully in my direction. He knew where I was.

“Dude, where were you? The party started forever ago.” Skyler folded his arms. I could tell he was upset. His tone didn’t say so, but I knew.

“I… got delayed.” James stuck his hands in his pockets, and was glancing everywhere but Skyler and I. Something was up.

“What kind of delay? A serious one? Or one we can discuss here?”

James looked around, leaned in, and whispered, “Back room.” As swiftly and nondescriptly as they could, they stole to another room, with me trailing closely behind.

I closed the door and faded into the corner again, and listened to their conversation.

"Really, James, what is it? Is it a threat to our security?"

"Yup. I got... Captured..."

Skyler stiffened, but calmly said, "Oh really? By who?"

"Luigi and a girl named Akemi. They questioned me, and threatening my life for information. But, because of my lifeblood, I guess I was able to resist, and didn't say anything."

"This is an interesting twist. Did they let anything slip? Any tidbit worth knowing?"

"They plan on your assassination. And they look to attack you when you're at your weakest."

Skyler chuckled for a moment. Then burst out laughing. Then bent over, and slapped his knee, his guffaws were so raucous. James did his best to laugh along but I could tell he was confused.

“Is that really funny?”

“Of course! I’m never weak. I’m always strong, and when I’m not, Mario is there to help me. Right Mario?”

“Of course, Skyler. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“See? I’m fine. Now, if that’s it, let’s go rejoin the party. Come on!” Skyler stood by me. Quietly, he asked, “What did I miss?”

“That he’s the one planning and doing it.”

“Is he? Was the capture real?”

“Affirmative, but the questioning wasn’t. Skyler, he’s going to do it from the outside.”

“Kill me? He’s a 13 year old boy! Outside, if he says a bad word, or skips class, he gets grounded for a week. Killing would involve prison.”

He paused, and stared at James from the doorway. “No, I’ve got something planned for James, and he’s got something for me. I just need to be ready before he is.”

“As usual.”

**_ Chapter 38 _ **

Once the party was over, Skario signed off, and crawled into bed, if knly for a few minutes. Mom came in several seconds later.

“Skyler, wake up, school today!”

“Good morning mom.”

“Hey, James called last night. He wanted to know if you two could hang out tonight.”

“And you’re telling me this now?!?”

“You were already in your room, so I just told him yes. I hope that’s okay with you.”

He flew out of bed, ready to kill something, but remembered he was in a fragile human body. But he had a plan.

“That works for me. I’ll just tidy up in here a little bit, thanks.”

“Good. Breakfast’ll be ready in 10 minutes. Okay?”

“Okay.” She left, and he stood frozen. Half of him was seething at the thought that she’d invited him without his express permission. But the other half was overjoyed at the thought that hed have James in his most vulnerable position.

James didn’t know about the rearrangement of whose lifeblood goes where. He only had the initial sample on his avatar. The rest went to Skario. HE also didn’t know that he was near the very end.. It would only be an easy matter to…

… finish him off.

**__ **

**_ Chapter 39 _ **

**__ **

_Ding dong!_ James rang the doorbell. Skyler’s mom answered the door.

“Oh, hello James! Come on in, Skyler’s waiting upstairs for you.”

“Thanks!” I entered, and ran upstairs.

“Hey James! I was wondering when you’d get here. I’ve got Simland set up for us.”

“Sweet! Hey, I’ve got to go take a quick pit stop, be there in a sec. You head in.”

“Okay.” James walked out, and stepped into the bathroom. Breathing deeply, he stared into the mirror. His reflection stared back, seeming slightly pixelated. _I’m about to reset my best friend._

“I can do this. I can do this. It’s for his own good. This is for everyone’s good.” Having sufficiently prepared himself, he went back to Skyler’s room.

Skyler, really Skario, lay slumped over, already in Simland. His hand with the controller connection lay at his side, out of sight.

Carefully, I walked over. Although James knew he was inside the game, he was still cautious. Skario could be on the defensive. Akemi had said all James needed to do was push the reset button, and it would be fine. _Piece of cake._

His finger neared the button. It was almost in slow motion that it happened. It brushed the tip of the button. Something shifted behind him. He turned to see Skario lunging at him with the controller. He fell back away from the console, throwing up his hand in defense.

He felt the A button jab into his palm. Light faded away, and the world spun around him. Everything went black.

\-----

From where they were watching, Luigi and Akemi saw a funny little blip of code come into being. It lay still for several moments. Akemi thought it looked very familiar… She started from her cover to inspect it, but felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Akemi, don’t. He could be here any moment.”

“I have to confirm if it is who I think it is.” Luigi shook his head. She stayed.

Skario appeared a second later. Akemi ignored the “I told you so” look and tried to see who it was.

The villain kicked the figure on the floor, who began to whimper. Skario leaned in close. “That’s what comes to those who break my trust.” He left, leaving the victim sobbing on the floor.

Halfway through the door, Skario turned back, and said, “So much for an assassination.” Then, he was gone..

Akemi began to move once more, but was again prohibited by Luigi. HE shook his head. She scanned the room. Nothing. Except the bit of reflected light in the corner there…

She nodded. Skyler, still trapped as Mario, was here, waiting for them to come out. They sat and waited. No one, even James was moving. A yell from the next room over made her jump.

“Mario! I need to speak with you! Privately!” The shadow from the corner emerged, fully dressed in a dark battle suit, and rushed to the other room.

Carefully, and without making much noise, Akemi hoisted herself out of the air vent, and dropped soundlessly to the floor.

“Nice.” Luigi’s voice whispered in her earpiece. “Not easy to do with those power risers.”

“You try it, and see how you like it.” She stealthily crept over to where james lay on the floor, not moving. Kneeling, she cradled his head in her lap.

“Akemi?”

“Sh, sh. It’s okay. What happened? I’m guessing it didn’t work.”

James coughed a few times, and she flinched. She turned to Luigi, and he gave the all clear. No one had heard them.

“My finger was on the button. I was so close. So close…” He hacked once more.

“What did he do? Are you okay?”

“He took it all. He sucked me dry. There’s nothing left. Not a drop.”

Akemi was confused. “What did he take? What’s all gone?”

James stared up into her eyes. “My lifeblood.”

Luigi gasped in my ear. Akemi just sat motionless, not sure what to think.

“The whole time, he was stealing it. Every login, he took my portion. There wasn’t really any coming to this avatar. Only the tiniest initial sample.” His breathing became shallow. She thought it was the end, but he reached up, brought her head close to his, and said, “Finish him. I know you can. While he’s resting from his over-indulgence.” James collapsed, not moving. Akemi let go, and stood up.

“Is he…?”

“No.” Luigi said. “But just barely. Some lifeblood’ll perk him up. We’ve got to work hard and fast if we’re going to do this.”

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

\-----

Luigi crawled back from the ventilation cover, moving from the room where James lay to Skario’s bedroom. Akemi tried her hardest to be stealthy as well. They’d decided on a plan before leaving headquarters. One of them, when in position, would fake their death, the other would get captured, and hopefully, Skyler and Mario would high-five. This might reverse the damage, or it might not. They were hopeful.

“Luigi?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think it’ll work?”

“It’ll take a miracle, but I think it will.” A pause.

“Hey, Luigi?”

“What?”

“This is too easy.”

“What?” He stopped for a minute, confused.

“He’s just laying there, on his bed, sighing in his sleep every few seconds. It must have been yummy.”

“Akemi! Focus! IT’s never that easy. Just watch for an…”

“Ambush!”

“Yeah, that. Hang in there, I got your back.” He kicked open the air vent, and popped out. Akemi was bus y delivering harsh kicks and punches to Skyler. He wasn’t showing any emotion. It was like he thought it was happening to someone else. Then Luigi got worried.

“Akemi! Look out! He’s going to attack any…”

 _Whoosh, whoosh, whir, bam!_ Skyler jumped seven feet in the air, lightly bounded off the ceiling, spun, and kicked her in the jaw, sending her spinning across the wall. She slammed in to it, the breath knocked out of her, and her face bloody.

Luigi ran towards her, shouting her name, screaming at her to get up. A blow to my side knocked me into the corner. I sat, gasping for breath, Skyler slowly walked up to Akemi’s shattered form.

He spoke. “Obviously you didn’t think this through well enough on this one. I do commend you for your efforts in hiding, well done. It lacked originality, but nonetheless, it pretty much worked. Oh, and something else you could improve.” He looked at where Luigi lay in the corner, and drew a wicked blade. “When faking a death, make it long, slow, and painful process, causing the victim intense pain as they die.” He plunged the tip of it into Akemi’s stomach, making her scream in pain.

“Aw, does that hurt?” Skyler dug deeper, her cries intensifying. “There are millions of ways I could have killed you. This one is by far the most preferable.”

Akemi’s screams woke Skario, who jumped out of bed, a little off-kilter. He was still full from James. “What’s going on?”

Skyler turned to attention, leaving the blade in Akemi. “Sir. Assassins. They infiltrated your inner sanctum. This one’s on the way out. What would you have me do to the other?”

Skario walked towards Luigi, eyes bright with delight. “OH, the things I would have you do to him. Torture, murder, ripped to shreds. But he is still useful. I’ll question him later. Take him to the dungeon.” Luigi tried to escape, but Skyler lunged forward at lightning speed, and twisted his arm behind his back. Skyler’s other hand clamped down on his shoulder, cutting off circulation to his arm. He was force-walked towards the door.

“Mario.” Skyler turned, still holding Luigi. “Nice work.” Skario held out his hand. Luigi couldn’t believe what happened next. Everything fell into place, and one part of their plan actually succeeded. Skyler and Skario shook hands. What then occurred was indescribable to the observer. The experiencer has a more accurate telling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're coming up on the end! It's a bit weird seeing 42 chapters from the original draft condense down into 15 or so... but I hope it's been a good ride!


	15. Chapter 15

I was prepared to go and murder that villain, Luigi, and was still pleased at my most dramatic killing. Skyler stopped me on the way out of the door.

“Mario.” I turned, ready for anything to come out of his mouth so I could fulfil it to the best of my abilities. “Nice work.” He held out his hand. It took me by surprise, but I shook it nonetheless, and saw Luigi’s eyes go wide. I went to pull away, but my hand was stuck. Skyler and I both pulled as hard as we could, but nothing happened. I forgot about Luigi, I was so focused on getting my hand apart. He fell to floor, obviously not escaping.

A bright light began to emanate between our hands. I felt something tug me forward, towards my arm. Darkness came, and I fell over, out like a light.

\-----

When I came to, Luigi was handcuffing an unconscious Mario to a table, and duct-taping him in place. I groaned, and he came over.

“What the… what happened? Why am I over there? Where’s Skyler?”

“Calm down, buddy. You’ve been through a lot.”

“A lot? That’s an understatement. What sort of things?”

“Well, that’s not you, over there. That’s Mario. You’re Skyler. You’ve just been stuck inside his avatar, and made to forget several things.”

Groggily, I sat up, thinking over what he’d just said. Then, a moment of realization came.

“Oh! Oh. Whoa. How long has it been?”

“About six months.”

“Oh. Good to know.” We sat in silence for a while as more and more of my memories returned. A few in particular came, and I cringed. “Did I really…?” I pulled a finger across my throat. Luigi nodded. “How many?”

He bit is lip. Slowly, he said, “Forty-two. Soon to be forty-three, if you count the one down the hall.”

“Wait. What?” I stood, getting an immediate head rush, and staggered down the hallway, clutching at the walls for support. I just didn’t think it could be true. Could it?

A soft whimper stopped me in my tracks in the doorway. The sight made me gasp, and brought me to my knees.

“Akemi?”

“Skyler? Is that you? Really you?” Her voice was so soft, so fragile, like an eggshell. It felt like anything I did would further break it.

“Yeah. It’s me.”

“Why would you do this to me? How could you?”

“It wasn’t me. It was a warped, twisted, confused, tricked portion of me. I would never do this.” I looked at the blade, still sticking out of her. Why? Why would Mario make me do this? Because he liked watching me kill my friends for fun? What sort of a warped and sick person would do that?

“Skyler?” I met her gaze. She took my hand. “I know you weren’t yourself. I forgive you.” She smiled, and an enormous tear spilled out from my eye.

“I’m so sorry. So, so, sorry.” I began to sob uncontrollably, and a myriad of tears flowed down my face to form a dense river.

“Hey, we’ve fought the good fight, and won. not many people get to see their dreams fulfilled.” I felt Akemi’s arm around my shoulder. “Thank you for being such a good friend.”

“No, thank you. You’ve been a much greater person than I ever will be.” No one said anything for several seconds. I broke the silence. “Do you remember that day where we just raced over and over again?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Just that it was the day I discovered I could beat the snot out of you in a race.”

She laughed, but then clutched her stomach, pain etched in every line of her face.

“Sorry, sorry, I’ll try not to make you laugh.”

“No, no, go ahead. It’s good. I could use some more. Luigi’s too serious. Do you remember that first training session at the Bat cave?”

I winced. “Yeah. I got the snot beaten out of me a ton. And I fell on my butt to boot.”

“You also proved you were ready to conquer when you freaked the instructor out. Remember?”

“Oh yeah. I couldn’t even do a cartwheel, but then I did, what was it, a triple backflip twist?”

“I thought it was quadruple.”

“Ah, yup. You’re right.” We sighed, reminiscent. Akemi groaned.

“Here, lie back.”

“No, no. I’m going. Let me go. Oh, one more thing…”

“Yeah?” I held my breath, ready for either a love confession or a something epic like that.

“Sarah’s back at the Batcave if you want to see her again.”

“Oh. Okay.” Not what I had in mind, though Sarah was next on my list. I just wanted these last few moments with Akemi to be meaningful to her.

A bit of blood ran down her cheek, and onto her neck. I went to wipe it off, but it seemed to go back inside her. I paused then tried to force some more inside, calling up some from inside of me. I concentrated but almost didn’t hear Akemi’s voice.

“Stop! Just let me go already! It’s not worth that! You’ll need every drop of that more than I will.”

I cried again. “But I can’t just let you die Akemi. I can’t. There has to be something.”

She was crying too. “I know. But there’s not. You’re just going to have to leave me where I stand, so get over it.” I slumped down beside her, pulling her into a warm, albeit odd embrace. A teenage boy hugging a girl with power risers for lower legs and a sword stuck out of her gut.

“Thanks.” She laid her head on my shoulder, and I put mine on her head.

“Akemi? I have loved being your friend. I’ve loved racing with you, escaping prison with you, beating up bad guys with you, even fighting with you.” She didn’t respond. “You’ve been the best fiend ever.” Still, she didn’t say anything. “Akemi?”\

I looked down. With her eyes closed, she looked asleep. But I knew better. She was gone. I just wished that she’d heard my final words to her.

Luigi walked in. “Hey Skyler?”

I sniffled and wiped away a stray tear. “Yeah?”

“Just to let you know, James is in the other room. His lifeblood levels are at 0.1%, and if he doesn’t get some soon, he’ll be gone too.”

“I’m on it.” Carefully, I detached myself from the lifeless form of my friend, and hurried down the hall.

When I entered, I saw James lying in the middle of the room, looking very pale. (Really, it’s quite hard to do when your friend has dark skin anyway, so he was really, really pale.)

“Hey James.”

His eyes flew open. For a moment, he panicked, trying to back away from me. Luigi held him in place, trying to calm him down.

“Whoa, whoa! It’s Skyler! The real one! Calm down buddy. They switched back, it’s all right.” He calmed down slightly, but was still wary.

“Listen James. I’m so very, very sorry. For all of it. Anything and everything. It just wasn’t me. All of it. Sure a few things were switched around and twisted, but they’re right now. I promise.” Silence and a skeptical look followed. I knelt down beside him and just waited. I wasn’t sure what would happen.

A warm feeling became present around my middle. I looked down, and saw James hugging me, tears streaming down his face. I began to cry too. We sat for a long while like this, not bothering to do anything else.

“Er-hum.” A voice from the doorway caught our attention. Looking up, we saw Luigi standing there with a hopeful glint in his eyes. “There’s someone here who we thought might help you remember a few things if you had memory problems. She has an idea on how to fix all of this.”

He stepped aside, and a small white figure came into view.

“Sarah?” I gave a quizzical look for a second, then remembered. “Sarah!” I stood up in and in the rush of wings and gravity wings, she flew over, my arms enveloping her in a bear hug.

“ **I've missed you so much. You have no idea how many times I cried when I saw his face online. It just tore me apart!”**

“I know. So what’s this I hear of a cure?”

Sarah flapped her wings ultra-fast in excitement. “The plan is to take the lifeblood Skario sole from James, give him a lot, you keep the rest Skyler, you both exit, and we destroy your profiles! Sound good?”

My confused look must have reminded her of a physics student who just had the topic go over their head.

“It’s a lot simpler than that, trust me.” We went back to where James lay, still pale, and now shaking. “You give him enough lifeblood to sustain normal body function, and keep enough of it for yourself.”

I set my hand on his neck, and began to concentrate, willing the lifeblood in me to bubble up, and flow into him. Gradually, I felt it leave me, but it wasn’t very fast.

“Is it working?” James asked. A healthier color returned to his cheeks, and he looked much better. “I feel a little better.”

“You look it too.” Luigi added from the corner. But I didn’t hear any of this. My focus was on getting enough to him and me. It was working! Until the warning light started going off.

“Luigi! There’s not enough! Any more goes to him, I’m gone. But he’s not full yet! What do I do?”

“Hang on.” He sat down, and I pulled my hands off of James. Silence reigned.

“Got it!” A lot snap made me jump. “Sarah, help me explain this. You’ve both been suffering the effects of pixelation, correct?”

We both nodded. James added, “I’m not actually there anymore. I’m just a pile of gray pixels.”

“Yeah,” I started, but was cut off.

“So, we’ll be recreating you like like an avatar, then adding lifeblood. So if there’s enough for you each to have 75% of it…”

Sarah jumped in. “You’ll both be able to exist!”

I was confused. “You’re saying I’ll only be 75% of a human? What’s the rest made out of?”

“Pixels.” Luigi and Sarah chimed in unison. “And code.” Sarah said.

“But you’ll both be alive.” I shrugged, agreeing with Luigi.

“Okay. let’s do this.” Both leaned in closer at the same time. “Wait, do I get a chance to pick 25% of me I want to be pixels? Like, can I have a robotic hand? And some vital organs, that I’d rather not have going out on me?”

Luigi looked at Sarah, who looked at Luigi, at which point both turned back and said it was possible.

“Sweet. James? Any input? what’ll it be for you?”

Seeming stronger, he sat up with a contemplative look. “Sure. Brain, vital organs. No, organs, legs, and arms. No, bones. Just bones. Totally.”

“We’ll see what we can do.”

In a flurry of activity, Luigi and Sarah prepped the process, a myriad of screens popping up here and there, making James and I dizzy.

“Almost… there…” Luigi muttered. A few moments passed.

“Done! Got it!” Sarah flew about, excitedly. “Ready to go?”

I stood and walked to the window. Gazing out at the cityscape, I realized that I would miss it here. It didn’t matter that my avatar would be deleted, part of me would live on here for eternity. Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that I would never see this place again, except in memory, however long that may last. Nicholas, Mario, the races, the robots, all of it, would eventually fade into nothingness as the ages drew on. A heartstring twanged, and part of me wanted to stay here forever being awesome, having cool friends, doing amazing things. Wasn’t that what this place was about?

One glance at James shoved all of these feelings aside. He had a family who loved him, and the longer he waited, the longer he wouldn’t be with them. I felt the same way. I needed to get home and right some things. This place, Simland, this game was awesome, but that’s just it; it’s just a game. I had a responsibility to my family, to James, to the world, to make things right.

James and I nodded simultaneously. “Time to go.” I helped him up, and we stood in front of Luigi and Sarah.

“Make sure that villain gets locked up in some non programmable prison, will you?” I gave Luigi a hug.

“I will. You, both of you kick his butt whenever you play him, okay?” Were those tears in his eyes?

We both grinned, still teary. Sarah flew up next.

“Take care James. Be good. Thanks for your very valiant efforts in the rebellion.” Sarah shot out two red arms with her tractor beam, and enveloped him in a hug.

“You’re welcome. glad I could be a part of it.” He stepped back.

“What about me?” I asked, brows furrowed. “No goodbyes for your creator?”

“Well…” She trailed off.

“What?”

Luigi cut in. “She added herself to the upgrades list. She’ll be out there with you.” He folded his arms.

“Really!?!”

“Yeah. But only you can see her.”

“Oh.” I glanced at James. He shrugged.

“I want to be done with this thing. I’m bushed, and I hope your mom isn’t spazzing out at the pile of dead pixels on your bedroom floor that became me a few hours ago.”

“Oh. Right. Um, well, we’d better go.” I turned back to Luigi. “Thanks again. Really.”

“No problem. Initiating exit sequence followed by deletion.”

We waved, and everything got brighter. Luigi and the room gradually disappeared, and time seemed to slow down. When the lights around us were white, it stopped entirely. I glanced over at James. Frozen.

“Well, well, it seems this game is coming to an end.” I spun around to see the silvery lady standing behind me. “You’ve fought the good fight, and come off conqueror.”

“Yup. What do you want?” I was uneasy that she was here. The last time I’d seen her was after the coma from the races.

She strolled around me. “Why, only to congratulate you on your success.”

“There’s got to be another reason.”

“Why, yes. To give you this.” Suddenly, she lunged forward, fingernails sinking into my shoulder. I cried out. Her glittering silver eyes were only inches from mine. “”Your avatar may get deleted, but this virus will enter your lifeblood and infect you. The only antidote is here. You’ll come back. I know you will. Someday, you’ll be back, no matter how much you think you’ll be able to handle it.” Triumph shone in her eyes, and I glared.

“No, I won’t. Servant of Mario, I command you to release me, and let us get on. I’m tired, and I want to see my family again. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” I jerked my shoulder from her grip. The nails remained stuck in my arm. I winced, but kept going. At this point, I didn’t care.

“You’ll never be rid of it! I swear, you’ll come back! Simland will forever be part of you!” she shouted after me, but soon disappeared. The light began to fade. Darkness reigned.

Then light…

\-----

**__ **

At first, it was too bright. But that was counteracted by the feeling. A tingling sensation started from the tip of my head and spread, all-too slowly, down to my toes. My eyes shot open, almost forced by a new sense of being. Had my time in the game really deprived me of this much life?

I looked next to me where a dark shape slowly began to form. James’ outline filled in with colors here and there, like he was downloading. I just sat, watching, my senses hyper accentuated and acute. After about five minutes, his face came into detail, still made of pixels. Then, the same way it had for me, a new, brighter stream of color started at his head and trickled down to his toes. He gasped.

“James! You’re alive!” I gave him a bear hug.

“Whoa! Whoa! Slow down! I’m still trying to finish downloading. You are too!. We both looked down, remotes still in hand. The last drops of color slowly filtered out, and the remotes fell to the floor. Silence. Neither of us could bring ourselves to say anything. The moment was too serious.

“It’s over.”

“Yup. Game over.” Pause.

“Where’s Sarah?” I panicked for a moment. Did she make it out? I looked around frantically for several seconds.

 **I’m here.** A think popped into my head. **Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. Unless of course you’d like to put me in something. That might be nice.**

 _Sarah!_ I smiled. _You’re here!_

**Where else would I be?**

“She’s here.” I sighed in relief.

“Good. Would you ask her the extent of our pixels? I kind of want to know how tall of a roof I can jump off of without breaking anything.” James grinned. “Just kidding. But I’d still like to know.”

I rolled my eyes, and several complex charts appeared in my head.

“Um… There’s no easy way to explain this.”

Another think came. **Just touch your first three fingers to his forehead. He’ll understand.**

I did as she said, and the confusion on James’ face face was soon replaced with awe.

“Cool! I’m part video game character, and you’re Spock!” We high fived.

 _Can I get my schematics?_ I thought to Sarah.

**Yup. Here you go!**

I glanced over them, awed at how much 75% really was. My entire right hand, heart, liver, other vital organs, eyes and brains were pixels.

“I’m wondering what sort of cool stuff we can do with this! Like this hand, I could be Wolverine, or Spiderman for Halloween! So much to do! So little time to do it!” I jumped to my feet and ran to the door. After throwing it open, I saw my mother coming up the stairs. I ran up to her, embracing her. “Mom? I hope you know how much I love you.”

“What makes you say that?” She hugged me back but was slightly confused.

I shrugged. “Maybe I’ve just had a change of heart. I’ve gotten tired of the fantasy world and want to spend more time with my family.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, I love you too!”

“Thanks mom!” I turned to race down the steps but remembered something. “Hey mom? Can we sell my gaming systems?”

She did a double take, dropping the pile of clean laundry she’d just folded. Her expression was shocked. “Wha… what?”

“I want to sell my consoles. I’ve changed and feel like I’m not spending enough time with family and friends. “

“All right then… Are you sure? you don’t want to hang on to one for old times sakes?”

I tromped down the steps, with James in tow. “Nah, just all of them, done, gone, over with. If you want to keep one, you can. Just put it in the attic, or something.” We ran to the back door, leaving her shaking her head, wondering what on earth could have happened.

Once outside, we enjoyed the sunshine and warm air. I was home.

And ready to rediscover reality.

The End


	16. Epilogue

“Come on, grandpa. Hurry up!”

“I’m coming, just hold on!” I trudged up the stairs, my knees groaning in protest with each step. Being sixty made it hard to get around. My two oldest grandkids, Devin and Jackie, had raced ahead, and were digging through my childhood memorabilia my mother had stored in the attic. I made it to the top, wheezing because of the dust. They had already dug into a box called, “Skyler’s games.”

“Whoa! What’s this?” Jackie held up a game case. Her long dark hair was pulled up into two pigtails, making her look younger than her ten-year-old self. She lightly gripped it between two fingers, slightly grossed out by the layers of dust and age. Squinting at the title, she made out, “New… Super… Mario… Bros?”

“Yeah,” Devin, age nine, scoffed. “New a million and a half years ago. That’s an enormous case for a little old chip.” He reminded me of myself at that age. Before the happenings.

I ruffled Devin’s hair. “Oh, we didn’t have games on chips back then. Oh no. We had then on discs.”

They both stared at me in awe, then burst out laughing. “No way, gramps. I don’t believe you.” He gave Jackie a look, as if to say, “See, he’s crazy. That couldn’t have happened.”

“Take a look at this then.” I popped open the case and held up the disc for them to see.

“It’s so big!” I handed it to Devin. “And heavy too!”

“How big was the console you played it on?” Jackie said, slowly. I could see they were really and truly interested. They tried to be subtle about their excitement, but I could see right through their facade. So, I gave them what they wanted. You do that sort of thing for your grandkids.

“Where is it… aha! Mom did keep it.” I dug through the box and pulled out my old wii. “Let’s see if it still works. How ‘bout it kids?” They grinned.

Carefully, I plugged it into the tv that used to occupy my room. I pushed the disc in, waited for it to load, and started up the game. Neither Jackie nor Devin said a word. I guess they were surprised their old man could be so cool. I’d show them.

Level 1-1 passed quickly, taking only a minute or so to kill all the baddies and get the big coins. I made Mario flip, jump, spin, and stomp efficiently, and in the most awesome ways possible. My grandkids just sat there, but I could tell they were losing interest.

“Um... Would you kids like to try? This arthritis is killing my hands.”

“Sure!” I handed my remote to Devin and took another controller from the box and gave it to Jackie. They spent quite a while trying to figure out how to move their characters and had to learn the buttons. I chuckled, watching their distress, as they kept losing to slow-moving turtles. I left them to spend the afternoon up there, deciding instead to go take a nap. I fell asleep almost instantly.

“Sweetie?” My wife tapped me on the shoulder, waking me. “I think you’d better go check on Jackie and Devin. They’ve been up there for hours. Their parents will be here soon, but I haven’t heard them in a while. I’d go myself, but…” She motioned to her wheelchair, and I stood, creaking slightly. I grumbled as I had to make my way all the way back to the attic. I paused at the landing below the attic.

“Come on kids, your parents will be here soon.” Silence. “Jackie? Devin?” I took the last few step, and stopped in my tracks. Were my two grandkids had been sitting were two little piles of gray pixels, the controllers innocently sitting adjacent. I turned to the TV, anger boiling up inside me.

These words flashed up in the wall of static: “Hello Skyler. Missing something? Two things really. Would you like them back? Come and claim them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end! 
> 
> Or is it?
> 
> It's been a long time since I wrote this... and I don't know, should I write a sequel? It would be a fun way to spend Camp NaNoWriMo in July!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
